Word: trademark
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Almost as fast as he can deliver his trademark "Excuuuusse ME!" Martin has become one of the country's hottest comics, stumbling, smirking and stroking his banjo through a sold-out 50-city headliner tour. The act is a lunatic deluge of sight gags, supercool show-biz parodies, zany body language and well-paced one-liners. Martin seems spacey, and his props appear to be simplistic. But below that surface, the act is as tight as a bear hug, and even the simplest shtik has flip-side gags within gags...
...America. That would extend CCLA's marketing turf from Hawaii and the West Coast eastward. Both companies, like about 500 other Coke bottlers, are independent of the monster Coca-Cola Co. of Atlanta, which supplies bottlers for a fee with Coke syrup and rights to the trademark. The bottlers do not have to confine themselves to Coke: CCLA, for example, also bottles Canada Dry and Dr Pepper soft drinks...
...knew he had it with ten yards to spare," says Paul Halas, Gary's holder. Bosnic didn't jump and down with glee when it did split the uprights. Rather, he galloped off calmly after his first varsity field goal in the business-like manner that is his trademark...
Such quarrels over names may seem frivolous to casual consumers-that is, nearly everyone. But they are no laughing matter for companies that must constantly battle to protect their valuable turf in trademarks or risk losing them without compensation. Xerox, for example, spends some $100,000 a year for ads explaining that its corporate name is not a synonym for making a photocopy but the registered trademark for a specific process involving only Xerox machines. In the U.S. alone, the Coca-Cola Co. retains three lawyers to stand guard over the trademark "Coke." Other companies like IBM, RCA and Gillette...
...protect trademarks clearly endangered by popularity, the owners of such familiar names as Kleenex, Jell-O and even Frisbee constantly monitor newspapers and magazines, television stations and the ads of competitors. They look for any use of their trademarks-say, without capitalization-that implies a wider, generic meaning. Offending writers or editors may get no more than a note or telephone call from the company urging them to avoid future errors. But when a potential rival violates a trademark, the legal battle may be heated...