Comments on: The North Faces Sues a Kid You Probably Would Have Hated in High School

By: Bjornar

Bjornar — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:25:32 +0000

Perhaps the reason TNF is trying to punish this guy (though 18 isn’t wizened, it is an adult–we’re not talking kids and lemonade stands here) is in fact because he tried to sell them “his” company. Kind of tough to sell the parody of a trademark that you yourself have not sucessfully trademarked yet. It would be like ransom without actually holding a hostage. If TNF had decided they had a spare $1 mil sitting around and paid him when he didn’t own the trademark on “The South Butt” what would stop me from taking that idea? I could start cranking out TSB fleeces of my own. Heck what would they even have been buying from him? This guy is Uli the nihlist “Give us the money Lebwoski!” Walter: “No, without a hostage, there is no ransom. That’s what ransom is. Those are the f____g rules.”

By: Forrest

Forrest — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:52:12 +0000

I think it will be much harder to argue that The South Butt is a parody ( in court ) after having tried to sell it to The North Face for a million dollars. That strikes me as pretty bad faith - a lot like the “domain squatters” of the 1990s who aimed to get rich buying McDonalds.com and selling it to McDonalds.

By: gary

gary — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:42:39 +0000

You guys are right, it does seem like a waste of time on TNF’s part. The quality of the merchandise The South Butt sells looks like the low-rent fleece my old store used to sell (not comparable to TNF). Its tagged $60 but we immediately sell it 50% off or more just to make it seem like a deal. Also asking $1M for the company from TNF was a joke, if he’d asked maybe $250K they might have just payed it. The kid could have bought himself a pretty nice house for what really amounts a cheeky idea that most people would have only turned into a HS economics class project.

By: tyrone.sweetlick

tyrone.sweetlick — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:51:03 +0000

Dave is right. I doubt the kid has any idea what patents TNF might have, and even less how to rip them off. It’s all about making fun of the trademark. And parody has a special place not only on the Daily Show, but also in trademark law. TNF lawyers must be bored.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:07:48 +0000

Just FYI, the article you link is pretty bad. Lots of talk about trademark law, then we conclude with patent infringement? The word patent is just plain wrong. This is 100% about trademarks.