COMM 207: Trademarks (in-class assignment)

Here's a link to a recipe for a cake that resembles a common pet owner's household product. Revise it for publication in a family newspaper that uses the Associated Press stylebook. See especially the sections on trademarks and brand names. Attribute it to the blogger who posted this version of the recipe. Be sure to follow AP guidelines on the use of trade names. We will discuss some of the issues in class before you start writing. Due in class. Today.

(You may need to surf around her website to find the blogger's real name.

(Oh, and as long as we're talking about surfing around, the easiest way to verify a trade name is to Google it ... oops! ... I meant, perform a keyword search on the Google search engine. See how it works? If you get a corporate webpage as your first hit, you're dealing with a registered trademark.)

Here are some questions to consider:

• Would you run it in a family newspaper? What are the arguments for running it? What are the arguments against?
  
  
• What are the rules for using a trade name? When do you use the trade name, and when do you use a generic? When do you use caps and when do you use lower-case?

Here's a summary of the law on trademarks put up by Iowa State University. It says in part:

If the owner of a trademark has spent time and money in presenting a service or product to the consumer, the owner should be able to protect this investment by being allowed to prevent others from using the trademark and profiting from the owners investment.

Test your copy editor's eye, by the way, on this passage. See the error? It's still a good statement of the basic law on trademarks. And the Iowa State webpage has one of the best explanations I've seen of the reasoning behind it.