SF: MOUNTAIN VIEW DAD LOSES NAME DISPUTE WITH BOY SCOUTS

[Beavah]

Yah, Chug, I reckon a part of what you're not appreciating is that on this side of the pond our Patent and Trademark Office has run amok. So have our copyright laws for that matter.

 

It's a Yank thing. We took da PTO off of the federal budget so as to hide our deficit back in the 90s. So now the only way the folks who work in the office get paid is if they issue patents and trademarks. Their budget depends on not denying many applications.

 

This in turn has encouraged entities to file lots and lots of very broad patent and trademark applications, partly in self defense, but also as a business tactic. A large company can file lots of applications, and use 'em to stymie and block competition from smaller companies who can't afford the legal and research time to fight these bogus things in court. Even business methods have been deemed patentable in da U.S.

 

For example, WOSM lists at most a couple of trademarks, but da BSA lists about a hundred. And uses 'em to stifle any competin' association. Da arguments Kudu is makin' are real arguments, eh? The term "Scouting" is our registered "property", so nobody else can use it. Includin' a British troop visiting the U.S.

 

Yah, don't worry, though. We're doin' our best to export our system to Europe, eh? And you folks in G.B. were dumb enough to join the E.U., which has become a primary target for our government and major corporations to push this stuff on you. In our last WOSM dispute, we forced out the Secretary General with financial blackmail, eh? Next time we want to force WOSM to do somethin', we're just goin' to claim that we have exclusive rights to "Scouting".

 

I know it sounds really odd that any civilized people would think this way, when it obviously serves no civic purpose and when Scouting clearly predates the BSA. But yeh have to make allowances. We're American.

 

Beavah

 

[Chug]

Beavah said; "Next time we want to force WOSM to do somethin', we're just goin' to claim that we have exclusive rights to "Scouting". "

 

If it tried I think it would find the mocking laughter from the other WOSM members a bit upsetting.

 

I also think the Birmingham Small Arms company might have something to say about the Boy Scouts of America using its internationally trademarked BSA acronym.