評論
打印
Business
商業
Trademark bullying
商標欺詐
Shut your kale-hole
閉上你的臭嘴
What's in a name, anyway?
無論如何，商標中能有什么呢？
CHICK-FIL-A sells an average of nine sandwiches per second at its roughly 1,600 restaurants.
托萊多的約1600家餐廳每秒平均賣出9個三明治。
Bo Muller-Moore paints T-shirts in the garage next to his house in Montpelier, Vermont.
家在蒙彼利埃（美國佛蒙特州首府）的Bo Muller-Moore在其車庫里染印T恤衫。
In 2011 Chick-fil-A's sales were more than $4 billion; Mr Muller-Moore (pictured) estimates that his were $40,000.
托萊多2001年的銷售額超過40億美元；而Muller-Moore估計其銷售額僅有40000美元。
Nonetheless, the slogan screened on his shirts-"Eat More Kale", initially made in 2001 as a favour for a local farmer, whose kale crop had a bumper year-caught the humourless eyes of Chick-fil-A's lawyers.
盡管如此， Muller-Moore染印在T恤衫上的短語"Eat More Kale"還是為托萊多無趣的律師們所關注。
They had sent him a cease-and-desist letter in 2006, claiming his slogan was too close to their client's "Eat Mor Chikin".
他們向Muller-Moore發出了"勒令停止通知函"，聲稱Muller-Moore的宣傳語同托萊多的宣傳語"Eat Mor Chikin"意思太相近。
Really?
事實真是如此嗎?
The letter does not cite a single person whom the slogan has confused.
信函并未列舉出任何一個為此宣傳語—Eat More Kale所誤導的人。
Besides, one entity sells food, the other clothing; only the profoundly stoned or deranged would try to eat a T-shirt or wear a chicken sandwich.
此外，他們一個是賣快餐的，另一個是賣衣服的；只有那些酩酊大醉、精神錯亂的人才會吃T恤衫或者穿雞肉三明治。
But Mr Muller-Moore is not the only small entrepreneur to have caught the attention of a big firm's trademark hawks.
然而，Muller-Moore先生并非唯一一個受到大型企業商標權恐嚇的私營業主。
In 2009 the company that makes Monster energy drinks demanded that Vermont's Rock Art Brewery stop calling its barley wine "Vermonster".
在2009年，生產怪物能量飲料的公司要求福蒙特州的啤酒廠Rock Art停止使用"Vermonster"作為其高酒精啤酒的名稱。
Last year Tootsie Roll Industries, which makes chewy sweets, filed suit against the maker of a roll-up shoe called Footzyrolls.
去年，生產咀嚼軟糖的小腳趾圈公司對生產roll-up shoe的廠商Footzyrolls提起訴訟。
And in 2009 The North Face, an outdoor-clothing company, sued a much smaller clothing company that had decided to call itself The South Butt.
在2009年，戶外服裝公司The North Face對一個非常小的服裝公司提起訴訟，因為其自稱The South Butt。
Chick-fil-A insists it has to protect its trademark.
托萊多聲稱要堅決保護它的商標。
But its idea of self-defence looks to others like bullying.
然而，這一行為對于其他人來說更像恐嚇、威脅。
The firm is protecting its trademark not from a crafty restaurateur hoping to piggyback on its fame, but from a kale farmer and a "Neolithic stencil-artist" in Vermont.
它所謂的商標侵權者不是借其名聲的狡猾的餐館老板，而是風蒙特州的一個種植羽衣甘藍的農民和一個民間模板藝術家。
Also, Chick-fil-A seems to be claiming ownership of the phrase "eat more", which is a bit greedy.
而且，托萊多似乎宣稱其是"eat more"詞組的所有者。這一行為顯得太貪婪了。
Mr Muller-Moore is fighting back. He has taken his campaign to Facebook and Kickstarter, where he and a co-producer are trying to raise funds for a documentary called "A Defiant Dude".
Muller-Moore先生對托萊多的起訴予以回擊。他同其合伙人在Facebook和Kickstarter試圖為一個名為"野蠻的家伙"的紀錄片募集資金。
Rock Art Brewery similarly defended itself, not in a court of law, where deep-pocketed corporations enjoy an enormous advantage, but in the court of public opinion.
Rock Art啤酒廠同樣予以反擊，不是在"自古衙門朝南開，有理無錢莫進來"的法庭，而是在公眾輿論的平臺。
It worked.
這一方式奏效了。
After boycotts and negative publicity, Monster's makers agreed to drop the matter provided that Rock Art did not start making energy drinks.
在收到抵制和負面的名聲影響后，怪物飲料生產商同意撤銷訴訟，條件是Rock Art不在生產能量飲料。
Mr Muller-Moore claims to have received thousands of supportive letters.
Muller-Moore先生聲稱收到了無數的聲援信。
Hundreds of people have pledged to fund his film.
許多人對其給予了資金援助。
Chick-fil-A may end up eating more crow.
托萊多最終可能會以失敗告終。
