So I apparently broke the law... so says one

When blogging, writing, or otherwise striving to express your thoughts with words, be careful what descriptors you put together with subjects. The perfect phrase may not be so perfect in the eyes of some, and your "original thought" may be claimed by someone else.

An annonymous commenter posted a notice on my blog "I Bought Vodka Today" telling me that I'd infringed upon thier registered trademark and was breaking the law. In particular, it was regarding my word choice in combination with the word "vanilla" to describe the ability to have an endless supply of extract.

(You remember, if you add a bean and a little more vodka to your extract, it will continually renew itself. Perpetually.)

Considering my struggles with being concise, I was so proud of myself at being able to describe that thought succintly in 3 words! The problem was that the first two of those three words turned out to be the same as a product's brand name. Who knew!?

As I'd never even heard of this product, I looked them up. Sure enough, the commentor was telling the truth. And as it's a real product I can see how my wording could be misconstrued as a reference to their product if they knew of the product in the first place. Again, a product that I'd never heard of being from California, currently living overseas, and they being a small family company based in Georgia.

I'm irritated about all this and am writing this blog in protest of the accusation towards my use of the descriptive narrative on point of principle. I was just writing "words" descriptive of a concept I wanted to convey. It was my original thought at the time of writing, and as I'd had no knowledge of any product using those words, my use of them was not in any way an infringement of any trademark. Furthermore, the facts that the words in question were neither capitalized nor set apart in quotes should make it pretty clear that it's NOT a reference to anything, but simply a description of an idea.

It irks me that someone thinks they can now force me to give them credit for a word-phrase, thus turning it into a product's name (and thus an advertisement for it), when it was something that I thought of on my own. How can someone sensor me and my original thoughts as being a reference to their product when I've never even known such a product to exist?!! It's ridiculous. I've polled several people around me, even those who are from the same state as this company, and none of them have ever heard of this product either.

Part of the problem is an issue of symantics. When I see the phrase in question there is absolutely no brand association what-so-ever. From the company's perspective, however, they're so close to their brand that when they see that phrase that contains the words that happens to be the name of their product, they immediately associate it with their product. I get that. HOWEVER, they need to realize that their product is not widely known (esp. internationally) and they cannot expect to sensor everyone in their choice of words, especially when the usuage in clearly not meant to be any reference to any product.

Good grief. All of this just because I'd just learned from another expat here how to make vanilla extract from scratch and thought it'd be fun to share.

Now, in the company's defense, I will share this. In response to my reply of shock (to their notice of trademark infringement) one of the owners shared that it's a small family-run company and they're trying to protect their trademarked name. Apparently some large company is trying to take their idea and after viewing their site I can see why this product name would be so special to them. OK. I get that this would put them on the defensive, sympathize with their situation, and truly wish them all the best in defending their brand against that. I'm all for the family business to win. (Besides, after looking at their site, they offer really cool stuff. Again, I wish them all the best.)

Like I said, I can understand their position, and having thoroughly expressed my frustrated/irritated feelings on this subject matter, I will temporarily, begrudgingly, re-word my sentence--though taken in context of my situation I do not think I should have to.

Again, the lesson learned from all this? Be careful what words you use to describe something, especially in a public venue like a blog. The perfect phrase may not be so perfect after all.