[Lexicog] Re: McJob

Margaret Marks margaret.marks at GMAIL.COM
Thu May 24 12:49:18 UTC 2007


David,

>>Margaret, I thought at first you were going to say that Dan Quayle tried
to pass a law changing the spelling of "potato." (There's a story behind
that that you may not be familiar with.)<<

Please - the spelling of potatoe is the *only* thing we know about Dan
Quayle in Europe!

Of course you are right that it is legitimate for Google to protect its
trademark. But if it had become generic (which I have my doubts about), I
would say it should be defined as a generic, just as McJobs shouldn't be
given a fake definition for the sake of business interests.

But all I meant to say was that this doesn't seem to be the first instance
when a lobby has gone so far.

The Scotland story might be this McMunchies one, in which case a search for
McMunchies should produce better confirmation:
http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/times_24sep96.html

John,

Maybe they did approach Collins too. All I ever heard about was the attempt
by Google to have the verb google spelt Google, with a capital G. By
G/googling (!), however, I find more on the subject:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/15/google_brand_abuse/

Regards

Margaret Marks
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