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First Descents is Suing Eddie Bauer’s First Ascents to Protect its Trademark

By Rocky Thompson on August 9th, 2011

See, the key difference here is that once says “ascents” and the other says “descents.” To my non-mountain climber readers, this may be confusing, but “ascent” means “to ascend” and “descent” means “to descend.” I’ll give you an easy way to remember it: ascent=ascend; descent=descend. Got it?

It would actually be a lot easier to make fun of First Descents for filing this lawsuit if they were an oil or mining company. Turns out they’re an adventure therapy company that provides young adults with free outdoor experiences. Did I mention these young adults all have cancer? Eesh, anyone else feel guilty? Interested in First Descents? They seem like a fantastic company, check out their website. Good luck on the whole Eddie Bauer thing. Hopefully Mr. Bauer caves and just writes First Descents a big check, after all, no one wants to go to battle with a company giving kids with cancer incredible outdoor experiences.

UPDATE: The Official Corporate Statement from Eddie Bauer:

“We were surprised and disappointed by the suit and press releases from First Descents Inc.
We fully support First Descents as a non-profit organization and we want them to be successful in their mission.
With regard to the First Ascent name, Eddie Bauer owns the trademark rights dating back to 1988, substantially pre-dating the existence of First Descents Inc.
In regards to the First Descent name, we applied for registration from the US Patent and Trademark Office for the apparel category in 2008 and the registration was granted in 2011.
Nevertheless, we are interested in resolving this in a manner that is satisfactory for both parties.”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 10:25 am and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “First Descents is Suing Eddie Bauer’s First Ascents to Protect its Trademark”

  1. your mom August 9th, 2011 at 10:30 am

    I don’t understand why you get paid. You ARE AWARE that EB First Ascent has an entire series of clothing themed “First Descent” and sponsor a series of skiers, kayakers, etc who make first descents of challenging snow/water lines?

  2. dad August 9th, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    you are the worst! i hate you

  3. your dad August 9th, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    come on now, be easy on the boy, this is a blog, not the new york times.