Thursday, November 12, 2009

Intellectual Poppycock

This is old news but I decided to write about it after Remembrance Day.

The Royal Canadian Legion claims that the poppy symbol is its Intellectual Property. How is that possible? The symbol of the poppy existed before the Legion did? And of course, as is so common with IP rights, the Legion has taken a very heavy handed approach to enforcement. With all due respect to the Legion for all the good work they done, I think they are out to lunch on this matter.

Read this story about a bakery making a special order of poppy shaped cookies and tell me if it was not a worthy use of the poppy. Or this story about a peace movement using white versions of the poppy. Or this use of the poppy symbol. Instead of a "cease and desist," a letter noting that the symbol is trademarked, would have been sufficient. None of these activities were disrespecting the symbol at all.

It seems that corporate culture has infiltrated the Legion. Someone needs to mount a rescue mission to save the Legion from itself.

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