# Small businesses riffing on/appropriating trademarks from big business: What gives? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 15, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620 "2018-03-15T19:49:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620/21 "2018-03-16T02:32:00Z")
Years ago in Syracuse there was a burger joint that had a creation it called the Whopper (this apparently predated Burger King’s version). Since the small shop didn’t trademark the name, they had no defense when Burger King went after them, and wound up changing the name to the Vopper (which apparently was OK). I understand the big guys are obliged to descend like maddened locusts on any small enterprise that seems to infringe on their protected names. I just have zero sympathy for the giant corporations involved. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620/22 "2018-03-16T02:52:23Z")
> [@GMANCANADA](#): > > I’m a professor of Marketing and Business management and teach about this, the way Kenobi 65 explains it is correct: Good to know that at least something’s stuck in my head from my Business Law courses, 30+ years ago. Thank you! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620/23 "2018-03-16T03:01:54Z")
I know it wasn’t a small business but I remember when Packard Bell was selling computers in the early 90s their ads had disclaimer in small print that Packard Bell wasn’t affiliated with Hewlett-Packard or the Bell phone companies. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620/24 "2018-03-16T03:38:39Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Most of your examples are pretty straightforward, but I don’t get this one. While everybody knows the famous 3-points-in-a-circle [Mercedes-Benz logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Mercedes_Benz_Logo_11.jpg), the company name just looks like good old Times New Roman to me. They really threatened to sue over one of the most popular fonts on the planet? > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > One of [these](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz#Logo_history)maybe??? I heard the story from the professor of the business law class I was taking at the time (the professor was a lawyer). This was in 1986-87, and the case was from a few years before that, so the current typeface shown in **Wheelz** ’s link wouldn’t yet have been in use. The professor was also probably simplifying; there may have been more to it. I recall that, at the time I heard about it, the garage (I drove past it every day on my way to classes) had smaller signs showing the official names/logos of the car makes they serviced, so I infer that they were indeed “authorized” technicians. So it may have been an issue of their own logo’s similar font being in close proximity to the Mercedes logo creating the possibility of confusion. I don’t recall the original sign, but the sign I saw still used the sans-serif “M”, but the “legs” had been extended to make the “M” look taller and thinner rather than being so similar to the “M” in “Mercedes”. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620/25 "2018-03-16T04:08:53Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > There’s a chain of electronics/appliance stores around here called ABC Warehouse. For some reason, ABC Warehouse Utica is _not_ affiliated with them (anymore, at least), despite the name and being in the same business. In each of these cases it may be that there were originally two owners, they grew to more than one store, one owner thought of one (or more) stores as “his”, and when they went separate ways in business, they kept which stores were “theirs” as separate entities as opposed to liquidating the entire company when it had to break up. I assume it’s a family or partnership tiff. Another local business just had a thing where two owners broke off; one took the name and moved, while the other kept the location but had to change names. Adidas and Puma were founded by two brothers who had a falling out. > [@dorvann](#): > > I know it wasn’t a small business but I remember when Packard Bell was selling computers in the early 90s their ads had disclaimer in small print that Packard Bell wasn’t affiliated with Hewlett-Packard or the Bell phone companies. They certainly benefited from the HP confusion, but PB is older than HP as a name. My first computer was a Packard Bell 8088. Featuring the cutting edge 5 1/4" floppy drive. No HD, but we eventually upgrade to a 20 megabyte HD for like $400. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-businesses-riffing-on-appropriating-trademarks-from-big-business-what-gives/810620.md?page=1)