FERMENTATION(S)

Tom Wark has been forced to change the name of his excellent wine industry blog from FERMENTATIONS to FERMENTATION (or perhaps Fermentation - Tom?).

Since it involves lawyers and Tom isn't talking, I can only presume that someone got upset and hired a lawyer (disclaimer: this is just my supposition).  I notice a plethora of TMs on that "other" site, which (a) look  like crap (use the ™ HTML encoding instead), and  (b) demonstrate ignorance (only the first appearance of a trademarked name on a page requires the ™ or ® symbol).

If you are a reader of Tom's blog, please make note of the change, update your bookmarks, change your RSS subscriptions, etc. to refer to

http://www.fermentation.typepad.com/

And if you're not already a regular reader, you should be.  Tom is a pleasure to read, regardless of whether you agree with everything he says.

Pass the word along.  And just generally, isn't there a better solution than calling in the lawyers?  Why not a free ad for your business on Tom's blog?  I bet he's getting more traffic that you are (whoever you are). Yes, I know that legally you need to protect a trademark, but this seems a triumph of legality over common sense.

Comments

[Tom Wark]

Thanks for the kind words, Mike. I can't let it go without saying your support is really appreciated!

cheers,
Tom....

[Mike Duffy]

Well, I just think it's silly. Makes me want to smack a lawyer or something. So, in lieu of that, I wrote this post.

[tom merle]

While tom is a sterling guy and you rightly lament the turn of events, as a advisor to wineries shouldn't you use this situation as a cautionary tale rather than just a gripe session. Wineries should always check for possible overlap. I think it is understandable that Fermentations, the store, wanted Mr. Wark to cease and desist. Another example: one group of wineries in Napa Valley, in forming a coop marketing enterprise, considered then discarded using ~artisan~ in the name since Jess Jackson has, properly or improperly made this generic term a proprietary term for one of his divisions.