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-UE
Somebody trademarked "Fairtrade"
a) An actual patent office deemed the term patentable.
b) I cannot tell if this is a "Business means well" (ie "It's really too disappointing to believe this is a PR thing.") vs "PR firm for companies with labour issues" (because otherwise why would you trademark the term and act like a branding agency?).
c) I discovered this while reading about how Nestle were working with Fairtrade to treat coffee bean farmers better (Which raised so many eyebrows that I'm pretty sure I gained telepathic control over my entire neighborhood's eyebrows for a second).
d) Again with the inconsistent lying: "smallholder" is represented alongside "responsible capitalism".
e) They present themselves as sort of kind of (linking to stuff that Oxfam did in a way that seems to imply they have an in) working with Oxfam, which is just odd.
In the end I guess no matter their intentions they're doing good. They just still seem... off.
Also an actual patent office deemed the term patentable.
Comments
I don't know how British business law works...but has this been patented/trademarked as referring to a certification process, and if so, does it match the way other certification processes work (such as for products, or university degrees, etc.)?
Perhaps it's preventative trademarking? You know, pro publico bono, so no company with issues will trademark it, as it is in the case of publication rights to Mein Kampf being held by the Germans so neo-Nazis can't publish it. I mean, this is like the only way it could be, as it is said, legit. But I do agree the premise feels like a major trollery.
Uh, pretty sure publication rights aren't the same thing as trademark. Trademark applies to things like names and titles, not the content itself.
And in general, you can't "sit" on a trademark. AIUI if you want to sue someone for trademark infringement you have to show that the trademark is actually associated with your business.
So I was right! (But it's even worse than expected, by fixing the price on farms that were conned into signing up to Fairtrade they drive the overall price for produce in the area down, leaving everybody worse off.)