Ah, gotcha. I can’t speak for them but I would guess it’s probably due to the fact that they aren’t into the yoyo contest scene and don’t want to be a part of it right now. Why they do their own contests and giveaways. And there are many more companies that do not support contests also.
My comment was in response to the “conflict” material. Generally a company that doesn’t want to be associated with conflicts (or controversies) separate them selves from those things, and make sure they have no part in them in any way. That’s what my point was when I asked “OD does all of A/rt’s machining, so wouldn’t that make them part of the controversy?” OD supports A/rt in machining their yoyos, you’ll see posts from OD about them, Paul using their yoyos in videos, etc. Of course it’s still a business in the end.
I used OD as an example because of the association. I don’t hold it against OD, just like I wouldn’t hold it against YYE that YYE Garrett had nice things to say about both ART and A-RT, or really hold it against them if they stocked A-RT in the future, though I don’t think I’d purchase any myself. This is on the company itself, I’m not going to blame other, better businesses for not organizing a boycott or something of that nature. I used conflict mineral phones to draw a parallel, but they’re not equal. And A-RT could still try to make this right, they just don’t.
This is why legal patents and trademarks exist. If a company name, branding, colors, logos, etc., are important, they should be legally protected so there is recourse in cases of real or perceived infringement. Could you imagine if a theoretical person named Nathan Franklin Luxembourg created a company called N.F.L. yoyos? Would not matter at all that he’s using his own name and has nothing to do with football. It would get stomped on. Bottom line is, if your intellectual property is important to you, slap a trademark on it.
There is actually a lot to that. You aren’t wrong, but not necessarily correct either.
Technically, if the NFL had no business interest in the yoyo business, then technically it wouldn’t be a problem. Could they sue you? Yes they could. But then it would come down to intent. They would need to show that you purposely chose that name to take advantage of their business. A business that large would also look at many things, are they losing money, is it worth it to them to go after said business, is that company tarnishing their brand or reputation?
Then you have the larger issue. You’re dealing with a USA based company and a Canadian Company. In order for a trademark to cross borders it needs to be applied for (in most cases) in each country they are operating in. So ART in the USA, would need to apply for a trademark in Canada as well.
Then using a word like “Art” as a trademark is going to fall into a whole other issue. Trademarking common words. You can do it, but it’s tricky. One of the reasons why “Yo-Yo” in the USA isn’t a trademark in the USA anymore (from what I remember, have to read up on that one again). If it was to get trademarked, then every company that refers to their yoyos as a work of art, or their artform, etc could receive a Cease and Desist order from whomever owns that trademark.
Trademarks are crazy. Acronyms are even crazier. In order to get a trademark on an acronym the acronym has to identify your product or service. Then with a word like Art, you get back into common words.
I’m pretty surprised this is still a thing… I’m actually not convinced that it IS, aside from some people saying words (which, I guess, is mainly what “things” are anyway, at least in the yoyoscape). To me, it seems misplaced, as I’ve said both in the previous YYE thread and on Reddit. I think both brands are VERY distinct and the fact that they share initials does nothing to confuse or distract potential buyers, roughly ALL of whom know exactly what they want when it comes to yo-yo’s. I think of Lamonte’s company as Amplified and Jensen/Chuck’s as “Jensen & Chuck’s” (because I find A Return-Tops to be kinda awkward to say, which is part of the intent). Ironically when I first heard of Amplified, my thought was “oh, like the SPYY Amplifier?”.
I’ll say I get Lamonte’s point, especially with Jensen & Chuck being pretty colossal personalities in the yoyo sphere, but I really REALLY don’t think they were trying to take advantage of him, and I think it’s reasonable for them to use the name they did since they CAN’T use “yoyo” in Canada. But again, I just don’t think it’s worth being incensed over on either end.
Actually I think it would be funny if Jensen or Lamonte put it out there that no one should, under any circumstances, EVER refer to their company as ART, A-RT, A/RT, A.R.T., or any similar acronym. (If only because of course everyone would ignore such a request.)
I’m glad to hear this. I hope you two can do the showdown. But mostly hope you can come together. We are but a small community in this ever crazy world. So it will be nice to see you two work things out.
