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[wobbly]

A uni sailboarding club I belonged to used to be called a windsurfing club until a company threatened to sue them over use of the name.

Re: The whole regional name thing. As neither an American or a European I'd prefer the regional name respected. Why? Just because I know a Parmesan from Italy is likely to be good where as most American made cheeses taste like plastic. It's not that America doesn't produce any good cheese or that Italy doesn't produce any bad cheese, but if I don't recognize the brand I can still hazard a fairly reliable guess just by looking where it comes from. Even if you put the country of origin somewhere on the label I'd prefer not to have to search for that tiny bit of writing.

[Sheb]

Cécilia Malmström, the EU Commissioner for commerce (So the chief negotiator for the EU side in the TTIP talks) is giving a conference in my uni in a couple of weeks. Any good question I should ask her?

[scriver]

I wish you people should all stop saying "Europeans" like that, because this is most definitely not a "European" thing, it is mainly a French, German, and Italian thing. We up here in the north thinks it's just as ridiculous that we can't call champagne "champagne" if it isn't from Champagne as the rest of the world.

what you are missing is that many things which became generic on the american side of the pond, are not and were never considered generic on the european side.

This is not true. "Champagne", for example, was definitely a generic term for "sparkling wine" up here in our culture, but because it is used differently in France we can no longer call champagne "champagne". Of course, Swedish tradition, language, and cultural heritage is not important down on the continent.

So yeah, I'm with Bauglir on this. It make no sense for French to demand that the US (or any other country) should follow their naming convention. It's just the usual French/Germ self-interest and idea that their cultures are more "correct" than other peoples'.

Hell, it can even take downright stupid forms sometimes. For example, back in the day the Swedish glass crafting company Orrefors invented a way to make crystal glass that doesn't involve lead, which is pretty damned nice as lead, as I think we all know, is poisonous and we should really not want that in say our drinking glasses or other tableware. Of course, Orrefors patented this method, as was well their right, and obviously non-Orrefors glass makers started lobbying to the EU to intervene. So what did the EU do? Surely they came down on the side of the invention and entrepreneurship and acknowledged that through this non-lead method that company had come up with a way to make crystal that was both safer to produce and healthier to use, and that this method gave them an advantage on the market that was completely in line with the terms and competitiveness of the free market? Of course not. They ruled that only glass containing at least 14% toxic lead oxide could be called "crystal", and that Orrefors had to call their crystal products something else. But hey, I guess the EU was just protecting theit cultural heritage. Because that's really a situation in which we want "cultural heritage" to overrule new innovation.

[Bohandas]

That's pretty fucked up

[mainiac]

So yeah, I'm with Bauglir on this. It make no sense for French to demand that the US (or any other country) should follow their naming convention. It's just the usual French/Germ self-interest and idea that their cultures are more "correct" than other peoples'.

The French follow our naming conventions too, y'know.  For instance Bourbon doesn't come from France (it's namesake) but from Kentucky.

[Helgoland]

Germ self-interest

I'm afraid to ask whether this is a typo

[scriver]

So yeah, I'm with Bauglir on this. It make no sense for French to demand that the US (or any other country) should follow their naming convention. It's just the usual French/Germ self-interest and idea that their cultures are more "correct" than other peoples'.

The French follow our naming conventions too, y'know.  For instance Bourbon doesn't come from France (it's namesake) but from Kentucky.

Well they'd better, or they'd be thoroughly hypocritical about it. Not that it matter much, as I don't think "bourbon" was a generalised term in France the way champagne is.

[Culise]

So yeah, I'm with Bauglir on this. It make no sense for French to demand that the US (or any other country) should follow their naming convention. It's just the usual French/Germ self-interest and idea that their cultures are more "correct" than other peoples'.

The French follow our naming conventions too, y'know.  For instance Bourbon doesn't come from France (it's namesake) but from Kentucky.

Well they'd better, or they'd be thoroughly hypocritical about it. Not that it matter much, as I don't think "bourbon" was a generalised term in France the way champagne is.

Not to mention that you aren't actually blocked from calling any corn-mash whiskey you want "bourbon" as long as it's made the same way, as far as I can tell from a cursory glance.  It just so happens that very few people outside of Kentucky are interested in both making bourbon and calling it bourbon instead of whiskey. 

EDIT: Ah, that's why.  It's just more general than Kentucky alone.  Several countries have signed agreements with the US saying that bourbon has to be made in the US; I thought it was more provincial like, well, the champagne of Champagne.  Mea culpa.

[Bohandas]

EDIT: Ah, that's why.  It's just more general than Kentucky alone.  Several countries have signed agreements with the US saying that bourbon has to be made in the US

This is what the government wastes my tax dollars on.

[mainiac]

EDIT: Ah, that's why.  It's just more general than Kentucky alone.  Several countries have signed agreements with the US saying that bourbon has to be made in the US

This is what the government wastes my tax dollars on.

Tell me where to send the money and I'll refund you the penny of your tax dollars that it went to that.  Less then a penny actually but I'll round up.

They didn't actually negotiate for Kentucky whiskey explicitly.  They signed trademark agreements.

[da_nang]

The full text of TPP has been released.

Spoiler: Under Chapter 18, Article 18.82, paragraph 7 (click to show/hide)

Each Party shall provide procedures, whether judicial or administrative, in
accordance with that Party’s legal system, and consistent with principles of due
process and privacy, that enable a copyright owner that has made a legally sufficient
claim of copyright infringement to obtain expeditiously from an Internet Service
Provider information in the provider’s possession identifying the alleged infringer, in
cases in which that information is sought for the purpose of protecting or enforcing
that copyright.

How does this work for dynamic IPs?

[Bohandas]

A uni sailboarding club I belonged to used to be called a windsurfing club until a company threatened to sue them over use of the name.

That doesn't justify referring to it as "sailboarding" here on this forum. If people don't commit to using trademarks in a generic sense they'll never become officially genericized.

[Helgoland]

And that is bad... why exactly? 'Sailboarding' is as good a term as 'windsurfing', really. Why should we strongly prefer one over the other?

[scriver]

Because we prefer one over the other.

[Helgoland]

The thing is that Bo claimed that it was bad to use 'sailboarding' even if one likes it better or equally good because of political reasons. So you kind of missed the point there... Even when disregarding your somewhat troubling use of the word 'we'