3 ms·

Don't blame the legal department. They are legally required to send a C&D in situations like that or they can lose their trademarks.

by HWR_14 1y ago

mindcrime 1y ago
That's an oversimplification. WH could also reach out and offer to work out a deal with the site owner to license use of their trademark. That would probably entail some compensation (which could be anything from "good will" or a token cash amount, up to millions of dollars) and probably some verbiage on the page reading something along the lines of "Logos and identifiers on this page are the property of Waffle House, Inc and are used under license" or whatever.
- throwawaymaths 1y ago
  sure but thats also work that someone doesn't have to do. and the "house" was evidentally dealing with a disaster at the time.
  - andrewflnr 1y ago
    Yeah, but it's work that would have had a great ROI if marketing had been fully in the game, which was kinda the point.
    - throwawaymaths 1y ago
      of course i would love to live in a world where waffle house can be as off the rails whimsy as kfc, but im just pointing out why not to get your hopes too high!
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
orra 1y ago
After the initial legal letter they could have licensed / agreed to the usage, or taken over the running of the website. There are several ways to protect their trademark without being killjoys.
quantified 1y ago
What about the Big Mac index that the Economist uses to measure purchase price parity across countries?
- rapidaneurism 1y ago
  The economist can afford lawyers
- AStonesThrow 1y ago
  The Economist editors don’t blog to reproduce every letter they receive from attorneys, and they don’t taunt McDonald’s on social media, and probably don’t host the website that tracks operational status of soft serve machines.
- listenallyall 1y ago
  The equivalent would be a simple text list of all Waffle Houses currently closed, sourced by physically visiting each location and noting any closures. The author here used Waffle House's branding and logos, and also sourced the data by scraping their web site.

Don't blame the legal department. They are legally required to send a C&D in situations like that or they can lose their trademarks.

by HWR_14 1y ago

Don't blame the legal department. They are legally required to send a C&D in situations like that or they can lose their trademarks.

mindcrime 1y ago

That's an oversimplification. WH could also reach out and offer to work out a deal with the site owner to license use of their trademark. That would probably entail some compensation (which could be anything from "good will" or a token cash amount, up to millions of dollars) and probably some verbiage on the page reading something along the lines of "Logos and identifiers on this page are the property of Waffle House, Inc and are used under license" or whatever.

throwawaymaths 1y ago
sure but thats also work that someone doesn't have to do. and the "house" was evidentally dealing with a disaster at the time.
- andrewflnr 1y ago
  Yeah, but it's work that would have had a great ROI if marketing had been fully in the game, which was kinda the point.
  - throwawaymaths 1y ago
    of course i would love to live in a world where waffle house can be as off the rails whimsy as kfc, but im just pointing out why not to get your hopes too high!
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

orra 1y ago

After the initial legal letter they could have licensed / agreed to the usage, or taken over the running of the website. There are several ways to protect their trademark without being killjoys.

quantified 1y ago

What about the Big Mac index that the Economist uses to measure purchase price parity across countries?

rapidaneurism 1y ago
The economist can afford lawyers
AStonesThrow 1y ago
The Economist editors don’t blog to reproduce every letter they receive from attorneys, and they don’t taunt McDonald’s on social media, and probably don’t host the website that tracks operational status of soft serve machines.
listenallyall 1y ago
The equivalent would be a simple text list of all Waffle Houses currently closed, sourced by physically visiting each location and noting any closures. The author here used Waffle House's branding and logos, and also sourced the data by scraping their web site.