Weight Weenies

f‘ing joke. One would think they have learned their lesson. Guess not.

Yeah, Speshalizzed is totally right, these words are like, totally, the same...
Allez, Alize,
Venge, Flange,
McDonalds, McDowells,
Ass, Elbow.

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Seems Specialized are concerned about Trek being the world's #1 most hated bike company, had to challenge that somehow...

I have spread the word here in Denmark - hope Specialized burns to the ground

Leviathan wrote:Yeah, Speshalizzed is totally right, these words are like, totally, the same...
Allez, Alize,
Venge, Flange,
McDonalds, McDowells,
Ass, Elbow.

You realize that Alizé is pronounced all-is-ay because of the é?

So it's all-ay vs. all-is-ay, which doesn't sound similar at all.

The depressing part of this is that in the case of a phonetic equivalent, it has to be proven that the intent was to deceive or mislead. Specialized knows that's not the case*, but knows full well Neil Pryde can't bankroll the lawyers to fight the case, so they win. Dirty.

* Even the overweight lawyers of Specialized know full well nobody would want to copy a frame with a curved top tube.

Remember if it goes to trial it's before a judge and jury who know zero about bicycles: "what a top tube?"

In America most cyclists pronounce the Specialized ah-lez, and would pronounce the Neil Pryde ah-leez. The only difference being the long e. Yes we're ignorant but that's besides the point.

The Neil Pryde having been named much more recently than the Specialized could be considered evidence that they intended to capitalize on the Specialized model's reputation by confusing customers. Remember, even if Specialized doesn't think there's been significant encroachment in this instance they still need to defend their marks lest they lose rights in a future more egregious case. An extreme example of that would be Kleenex and Xerox both of which have become generic terms.

Neil Pryde should fire the naming consultant who came up with the name.

A long time ago I rode for a small team that was sponsored by a small custom Titanium frame company called "Epic Ti". It was literally a one man operation out of his garage and the guy sold maybe 30 bikes a year to people in rural Canada. Specialized sent him C&D documents and he was forced to change the name. This has been going on for a long time and I am sure there are countless other examples of small businesses out there.

I posted the message sent out by Neilpryde on Specializeds' facebook page. This was their reply:

In July 2013 we reached out to NeilPryde Bikes to figure out a solution on a bike name that was similar to one of ours, Allez, in addition to their use of the trademarks “Epic” and “Innovate or Die”. We were able to agree on a solution in December. We want to thank the NeilPryde crew for working with us on this. We’d also like to congratulate them on their new name, ‘NAZARE’ and we wish them the best success in their efforts.
-Mike Sinyard

Specialized is certainly defending their brand, for sure... but at a cost it would seem. I wonder if they wouldn't be better off to take a "pick your battles" approach, than to fight every time no matter how trivial it may be to them. Clearly, they see nothing as "trivial".

What I don't understand at all is why companies, particularly Pinarello... whose bikes are copied like cheap watches and everywhere... don't take a more aggressive approach to all the fake Dogmas etc., out there. It's a joke quite frankly. I guess enforcing those laws in certain countries is more trouble than it's worth in their minds, and they rely on people's common sense to determine which is fake or not. I still wouldn't ride a fake, since these are bikes of unkown origin and quality, plain and simple. And these illegally branded "fakes" are not to be confused with no name open mold stuff which is not pretending to be something it isn't. Still, I know people riding around on these fakes that truly think that they are essentially riding real "Dogmas" or whatever, except that they got a "deal" because all the middle men and marketing dollars have been removed. It's laughable. But hey, if it works for them...

Specialized has to defend lest they lose rights. The question is if those lost rights could be worth more than the negative PR. From what Kastrup posted above it sounds like their action with Neil Pryde was started well before the Roubaix Cafe fiasco. I expect that incident will have changed the trademark defense/PR equation some for Specialized. CEOs hate apologizing even more than normal people do.

Agreed about the Chiarellos. I suspect that it's difficult to make headway in the Chinese legal system if you're in Italy.

Calnago wrote:Specialized is certainly defending their brand, for sure... but at a cost it would seem. I wonder if they wouldn't be better off to take a "pick your battles" approach, than to fight every time no matter how trivial it may be to them. Clearly, they see nothing as "trivial".

We don't really know if see nothing as trivial. Also trademarking is clearly not as easy as some think it is.

Nice to know this all happened before Cafe Roubaix. Maybe Specialized should have paid NP a little to sign a non disclosure to avoid more bad press

Apple (or any large company) is no different...hasn't stopped anyone from buying Apple products. Its big business...

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Leviathan wrote:Yeah, Speshalizzed is totally right, these words are like, totally, the same...
McDonalds, McDowells

Can't put that one out there without mentioning: "Golden Arches, Golden Arcs". (One of my most favorite movies EVER!)