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6 January, 2005

Post your royalty cheques

Waiting (and waiting...) in the sorting office to collect a parcel this morning, I had an opportunity to read even the small print of every available poster.  Hence, I discovered that the Royal Mail claim trademark over the colour red and the phrase 'christmas is coming'.

I know 'pillar box red' is a named shade, but I didn't realise the Royal Mail owns it!

Posted by Ministry at 09:24 | 64 words
Comments

You also need to pay royalties to Time Warner if you sing Happy Birthday in a public place or for a commercial recording. They make $2million a year from royalties on that song alone.

Posted by Neil T. at January 6, 2005 12:51 PM

Actually (from some of the news I've read about Royal Mail), they may own the color, but they don't do much with it anymore.... I wonder if Terry Pratchett has something to say about that in his latest book.

Posted by Bruce -- Harper Blue at January 6, 2005 04:28 PM

More on the disturbing intellectual property front ...

I recently purchased a "Baby Einstein" DVD for my brother's son. On the back, in the small print at the bottom, I was informed that Einstein and Albert Einstein were trademarks of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

How can anyone trademark Einstein's name? I know they probably can legally, but they shouldn't be allowed to! IMO, the sphere of intellectual "property" has become far too wide in recent years and needs to be scaled back considerably.

Posted by Jon. at January 6, 2005 05:34 PM
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