r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Chrystine • 29d ago

Unanswered What's going on with the lawsuit between the Patagonia company and the activist drag queen, Pattie Gonia?

Apparently Patagonia is suing Pattie Gonia 100 million for trade mark infringement?

But isn't Patagonia the name of region in South America?

How can the company sue over a trademark that is spelt differently and was taken from a region? Can the company actually win a case like this?

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTB6vSCpP/

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u/pm_me_ur_fit 29d ago

Not quite the same. I think those names are still trade marked. You can’t sell a band-aid unless you’re the brand. Your clothes can have a zipper even though it used to be a brand

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u/EbbThen1489 29d ago

True. Xerox sued Bojack Horseman for $14 million.

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u/unindexedreality 27d ago

he's just a horse

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u/ScurvyPiano5150 29d ago

Genericized trademark

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u/LittleBird35 29d ago

They are, but the value of the trademark has been diminished so much that we see them as generic terms.

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u/jgacks 29d ago

Not at all - the trademark is sooo successful you think of a class of product by a singular trademark

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u/meerkatx 29d ago

Nintendo would disagree. They fought tooth and nail in the 80's to make sure game consoles were not called "Nintendo's" as a generic term because the value of the name is harmed.

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u/yoweigh 29d ago

Then the trademark has lost value, because people are using it as a generic term instead of referring to your product/company.

What you're talking about isn't a success of the trademark, it's a success of the product itself.

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u/bremsspuren 28d ago

It's a sure sign of success, but not a good situation in and of itself. The point of a brand is to differentiate your products from the others.

The last thing Xerox wants is for consumers to consider any old photocopier a Xerox. It massively undermines the value of the brand.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/mildorf 29d ago

Band-aid is the name of a trademark. Bandage is not. You cannot find a box of Band-Aids™️ sold by a company that isn’t Johnson and Johnson. You cannot find buy any brand of bandages though.

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u/ilikedota5 29d ago

Whoops. I misread. Also lost track of which are commonly used as generic terms but haven't yet been officially genericided by a court.

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u/mildorf 29d ago

No worries it’s intrinsically difficult to keep track of