Australian Women Fight Over "Geekgirl" Trademark 187
bennyboy64 writes "Two prominent women in the Australian IT industry are in a bitter dispute over the ownership of the trademark 'geekgirl.' A woman attempting to use 'geekgirl' on Twitter told ZDNet that women had been advised by the trademark owner to stop doing so since she owned the trademark for the word. 'She noted her trademark and asked me to stop calling myself a "geekgirl" in general conversation and to cease using the hashtag "#geekgirl" on Twitter,' IT consultant Kate Carruthers said."
Which one is here on Slashdot? (Score:4, Insightful)
Which one hangs out on Slashdot?
If neither of them do than neither deserves the trademark.
Re:Who will win? (Score:4, Insightful)
Betrayal of geekdom (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who claims a trademark on such a generic term should hand in their geek card and instead join the Patent Troll Club. :-(
Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I've decided (Score:3, Insightful)
Why should we r33l g33k$ care about what you think? :P
Re:Who will win? (Score:3, Insightful)
In Australian law? The one with the biggest tits.
But justice is supposed to be blind. Does that mean there will be groping involved? How do I get on a jury in Australia? ;)
Re:is the trademark with or without the "#"? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's about an 11 or 12 % difference between geekgirl and #geekgirl. What's she got the trademark on?
Irrelevant, since # is a prefix required by the system. There's about a 38% difference between Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola.com, but just try to claim that there's no likelihood of confusion there.
Re:Easiest solution (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Who will win? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Who will win? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this just someone claiming they own the trademark, or can they like prove it - like they have been using it and writing for ZDNet for 15 years using that name?
If they really have been using it as a handle for years, and has business tied to it, then that is a legit argument.
And, seriously, the other girl is actually allowing this to go to court? It takes like a whole 20 seconds to change one's username on Twitter, and all your followers automatically go to your new username. I would have changed it to GeekGirl2, and just have avoided the legal costs.
Re:Who will win? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, no. In French law, the one who marries the president.
Re:Why 'girl'? (Score:3, Insightful)
Only to the extent that I'm saying all straight men are straight.
IOW, all straight men will treat particular women in a way that they'd never treat any man, by definition. A man never has the opportunity to be treated that way by a straight man, because he is a man. For example, if you were a straight woman and I were a straight woman, there'd no chance that you'd treat me 'specially nice because you feel romantically/sexually inclined toward me; but if you were a man, you might do such a thing. In this latter case I thus have a potential advantage over men when it comes to getting what I want from you - but I can't gain that advantage unless you're aware of (1) my gender; (2) things about me that make me attractive to you.
The same applies for straight women to men, and gays to etc. How to act to elicit that response depends on biological and cultural factors.
How can they trademark something this common? (Score:4, Insightful)
This entire case reeks of horse manure in my opinion.
Re:Why 'girl'? (Score:3, Insightful)
Gender-non-specific Marianne,
Answer: They don't. I find it quite offensive to be called a girl no matter what the context.
That's where your understanding of communication and the concept of freedom of speech fails. Without context, it is entirely irrational to find a naming offensive. Take nigger, cunt and moron: the words all have baggage, but "nigger" is an entirely friendly greeting among some groups; "cunt" is infinitely less "offensive" than "vagina", which reduces the definition of the cunt to a receptacle for a man's penis; and "moron" can be anything from a clinical diagnosis to a humorous self-deprecation: "I'm a moron, sorry".
Let's take some examples. I might greet you, "Hey, girl!" If you find that offensive, you have issues. I might be meeting a group of women including you after work: "I'm meeting the girls." If you find that offensive, you have issues. I might be a 90 year old woman seeing you (accurately) chronologically closer to a 5 year old than myself, and refer to you as, "the you girl over there". If you find that offensive, you have issues.
Finally, fuck you and your whining at being offended. You can call me whatever you want without intending to harm me and I'll either take it as you meant it, laugh at the double entendre, or ignore you. But god knows I don't care whether you call me boy, girl, dude, sweetie, babe, hunk, chickadee, Mr Universe, Miss Universe or even use my real name. And even if you are trying to insult me, I won't bitch about "being offended": I'll consider your comment and either work on the underlying criticism, or ignore you for being a tart.
My four year old is a girl, I am not (any more and haven't been in along time).
Uhuh, you get to choose what words mean when you're referring to others; but others must choose your meaning when they're referring to you. Don't think so, toots.
On that note, I am not 'Miss' either. I am a grown woman who happens to be good with computers.
The use of gender-specific titles is a bit silly, but who cares? Feel free to call me Mr, Mrs, Miss, Reverend, Sir, Lord or Generalissimo. Whatever floats your boat.
Re:Why 'girl'? (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn't say "any conclusion", I said "such conclusions". In this case I was talking about how the GP referred it could affect her professional credibility. Maybe she doesn't care about people who draw conclusions about her professional ability based on a simple nickname.