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When it comes to discussing intellectual property laws, it's important to remember where they came from. I live in High Wycombe, a market town in the South Eas
by cjs_ac 3y ago
When it comes to discussing intellectual property laws, it's important to remember where they came from.
I live in High Wycombe, a market town in the South East of England. In the nineteenth century, Wycombe was known as the centre of chair manufacturing. The chairs were initially transported by barge down the Wye and Thames Rivers to Windsor, where they were sold, and consequently became known as Windsor chairs. They were exported across the British Empire and to America, and were very popular.
The chair trade in Wycombe started in a particularly cold winter, when it was too cold for the farmhands to work outdoors. The farmhands were taught how to make the round parts of the chairs by the town wheelwright (who otherwise made wheels for the carts made by the town cartwright). In recognition of this, a wheel design was cut into the backs of the chairs as a decorative device. This design became the distinguishing mark of a chair made in Wycombe.
A chair factory opened in Birmingham, but found that their chairs didn't sell as well... until they started adding the wheel design into their chairs. Business was good for the Birmingham factory, until some of the Wycombe lads paid them a visit. Strong words were had, but the Birmingham factory continued making chairs with wheel designs for a few weeks, until the factory mysteriously burned down in the middle of the night.
The wheel design functioned as an early trademark: it clearly and unambiguously attested the provenance of the item. Trademarks are a consumer protection mechanism: it is the buyer who needs to know the provenance of the item in the absence of a trustworthy seller.
To the man on the Clapham omnibus[0], the presence or absence of the wheel design was the only attestation to the chair's origin: this trademark was a necessary innovation. However, if the gentleman from Clapham is unable to distinguish between an apple grown in Switzerland and a piece of computing machinery manufactured in China according to a design from California, one wonders whether a trademark would be of any help to him.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_the_Clapham_omnibus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_the_Clapham_omnibus
- oniony 3y agoSo you're saying trademarks prevent arson and violence.
- atchoo 3y agoOr they are reward for it...
- oleganza 3y agoAs any laws, regulations and private agreements: they provide an up-front framework for conduct so that people do not get creative in the heat of the moment.
- geoduck14 3y ago>so that people do not get creative in the heat of the moment. Before trademarks: How dare you produce fake watches that look like mine! I'm so mad... I could crochet an entire BLANKET!
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoDefiniyyely, we will have a tidal wave of arsonand violence withng 3 to 5 years due to climate changje and lack of law
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoTo all the downvoters - do you seriously believe, that once damage from climate change starts to bite, and millipns of people are displaced, there won't be any social disorder?
- yard2010 3y agoWell nothing can prevent that if you're making some people mad enough
- varjag 3y ago> However, if the gentleman from Clapham is unable to distinguish between an apple grown in Switzerland and a piece of computing machinery manufactured in China according to a design from California, one wonders whether a trademark would be of any help to him. Apple Records would like to have a word.
- fmajid 3y agoThe Beatles extorted Apple Computer, twice, for their trademark.
- kramerger 3y agoApple Computer broke the first agreement that stated they would never get in the music business You know, like iTunes...
- another2another 3y agoYeah? Sosumi (I actually loved that sound and used it on my Performa Mac lots)
- tdy721 3y agoBecause Steve took the name off a Beatles Album. It wasn't extortion
- totalZero 3y ago> providence In this case, it seems the word you are looking for is "provenance."
- cjs_ac 3y agoIt is, thank you! I always get those two mixed up.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoProvidence is like providing something (provide ence) and Provenance is like it stems from something like a vine (pro vine ance).
- mywittyname 3y agoThis is very interesting!
- aubanel 3y agoWait, that's completely false ! Provenance comes from the Latin "pro" (from) and "venire" (come), so that's where an item comes from, while Providence (capital P) is "the care and control of God or of a force that is not human in origin" according to Cambridge dictionary.
- snet0 3y agoI believe this was more a statement of mnemonic than a statement of fact. I appreciate your etymology, though. That also can function as a mnemonic.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoApologies I didn't mean to suggest I was sharing the actual etymologies, it was only intended as an mnemonic for the commenter above! Thanks for sharing the actual roots though, no pun intended ;)
- lost_tourist 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tdy721 3y agoAlso good to remember that Apple Inc. infringed on Apple Corps until 2007. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer
- flohofwoe 3y ago...and then "3rd-world" 19th century Germany came along, and with its cheap workforce and by ignoring British trademarks and copyrights flooded the market with cheaper copies of superior quality, and that's how "Made in Germany" was born ;)
- _dan 3y agoWycombe is really close to where I grew up but I did not know this.
- hummer_embark 3y ago[dead]
- dspillett 3y agoInternational IP laws come from the time of Dickens, when people were copying his books in the states because he couldn't enforce ownership from over here. America didn't really play ball until the situation started affecting their own economy (Americans being copied by people in other countries, or other Americans, enough to affect the national bottom line). China is in a similar state: international IP isn't enforced, and the government just pays lip service to the idea, while it is a net benefit for their country's economy for copying to be rife. This will flip when the issue becomes a net detriment to their bottom line. The same game has been played any number of times at smaller scales too, though in the smaller cases the big boys tend to force the “being a net detriment” with sanctions and other indirect influences (or simply by buying out the smaller concerns).
- cjs_ac 3y ago> International IP laws come from the time of Dickens, when people were copying his books in the states because he couldn't enforce ownership from over here. Copyright is a different game to trademarks. Copyright has its origins in the Statute of Anne (also known as the Copyright Act 1710), and was designed specifically to protect the investment of publishers and printers in royalties to authors: copyright protects neither producers nor consumers, but rather distributors, whereas trademarks protect consumers. The idea of extraterritorial and multi-jurisdictional copyright is, as you say, a more recent innovation; the American film industry is based in Hollywood because California refused to enforce Edison's claim on all films made with his cameras. > The same game has been played any number of times at smaller scales too, though in the smaller cases the big boys tend to force the “being a net detriment” with sanctions and other indirect influences (or simply by buying out the smaller concerns). All of international politics works like this. Western politicians and diplomats are naturally supportive of the 'rules-based order' we keep hearing about: we wrote the rules in our favour after the Second World War.