Comments on: No, you can’t TiVo that show! http://www.blogofstupidity.com/archive/2004/12/13/no-you-cant-tivo-that-show/45.html Celebrating stupidity around the world. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:49:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Ed http://www.blogofstupidity.com/archive/2004/12/13/no-you-cant-tivo-that-show/45.html#comment-2440 Ed Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:25:31 +0000 http://www.blogofstupidity.com/archive/2004/12/13/no-you-cant-tivo-that-show/45.html#comment-2440 The issue isn't with them taking personal issue with the misuse. It's their enforcement of trademark law - their trademark is for a product, not a service and as such the misuse is incongruent with the intended use of their mark. Part of a company's responsibility when maintaining a trademark is to enforce the use of it. Failure to enforce a mark results in loss of enforceability of that mark. Essentially, if they turn a blind eye to improper use of the mark and a couple of years down the road someone making another brand of digital recorder marketed it using a phrase like "Next time you TiVo, Tivo with a Panasonic!" they may have lost their right to tell them not to. The issue isn’t with them taking personal issue with the misuse. It’s their enforcement of trademark law - their trademark is for a product, not a service and as such the misuse is incongruent with the intended use of their mark. Part of a company’s responsibility when maintaining a trademark is to enforce the use of it. Failure to enforce a mark results in loss of enforceability of that mark.

Essentially, if they turn a blind eye to improper use of the mark and a couple of years down the road someone making another brand of digital recorder marketed it using a phrase like “Next time you TiVo, Tivo with a Panasonic!” they may have lost their right to tell them not to.

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