Specialized threaten to sue over Roubaix name!

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/12/07/war-veteran-forced-to-change-bike-shops-name-after-threat-from-u-s-bike-giant-specialized/

This is an outrage.

Interesting. SBC are pretty aggressive (as are trek AFAIK).

Odd that they’d get to own IP rights in “Roubaix” but we’ll never know until it’s tested in courts.

The “victims”‘s story re his PSTTD/time as a veteran etc is PR in a similar way…

Change the name to cafe roobay?

Change it to Roubiax, not many people would notice.

Well, I don’t think I would confuse the two and I have to say, it does make me slightly less inclined to keep the specialized tarmac on the shortlist of road bikes I’m looking at.

Interesting outcome of specialized “protecting their business interests”.

Depending on one’s point of view, one could see it as PR, certainly.

The reason it annoys me though, is because it’s the name of place in France, and part of the name of a world famous cycle race.

It’s specialized deciding to have the monopoly over something which is previously ‘public property’.

It reminds me of how The North Face nearly sued the college student in America for selling his own spoof brand of clothing called The South Buff, they called off their legal action once people got wind of it and thought they were being overly heavy handed.

Didn’t Cannondale get some rights over “Freeride”?

Perhaps we should all email SBC telling they are being ****.

dabble – Member

Change it to Roubiax, not many people would notice.

Doesn’t work (for exactly that reason)

I’m tempted to start a facebook group and see if a similar outcome to that for The South Buff person can be achieved. See if things can ‘go viral’.

specialized tarmac

Lafarge could take down Specialized! http://www.tarmac.co.uk/

I think this is fair. They own the trademark. Just change the name.

Reminds me of when that green energy drink brand went after a micro-brewery. They backed down after a general social media backlash.

They own the trademark. Just change the name.

Roubaix tights, Roubaix the town, etc. It’s just a name that they borrowed from a map, and cycling culture in general.

I expect that this only applies in N. America but even so it’s no big surprise. Much like their other recent case against. Volagi

http://m.cyclingnews.com/news/specialized-v-volagi-verdict-choi-guilty-forsman-not-guilty

My winter road bike is a Claude Butler Roubaix (2007 I think, a red one anyway)
Did Spec not get all grumpy about another bike company using it for the name of a different bike? Or did CB use it first? Maybe they could sue Spec…

The name is already associated with cycling so it is difficult to see how they would succeed. However in the end it is often the deepest pockets that win, however clearly that is wrong 🙁

Spesh have loads of history of behaviour like this. Mega corps arseholes!

There was a Mr Spielberg who wanted to claim he owned the word ‘Jurassic’. He didn’t get very far.

Change it to Allez Bikes?

Warrants a boycott. They don’t own cycling’s heritage

Can see why this is making people angry but I think the ‘offence’ is surely that Specialized were able to register the trademark in the first place.

Once it was a registered trademark then they were clearly going to enforce it- like the quote in the article says, the guy could have found this out with a simple search and as it is a trademark they are kind of obliged to enforce it or lose it.

What are they going to annex the town as well or something?! Muppets

probably some 6-figure salary “brand manager” just woken up, due a performance review and decides this is what needs to be done to show their contribution.

Someone has posted a link to the TM site on Twitter. Shops aren’t covered so it seems pretty clear that Specialized are hoping to just force this through on the basis that the owner can’t afford to defend it.

http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/vwTrdmrk.do?lang=eng&status=OK&fileNumber=1331172&extension=0&startingDocumentIndexOnPage=1

I hope they realise that this kind of behaviour is more damaging to their brand than a guy with a shop named after a town. What they’re effectively saying is ‘Our customers are too stupid to tell two clearly different businesses apart.’

I suspect that the truth is that Specialized are probably big enough now that most people buying their bikes won’t ever hear about this so they don’t care about any small losses.

Regarding the comment above, they’ll claim that they’re protecting their ip because if you don’t it can be claimed to have passed into the public domain.

I expect that this only applies in N. America but even so it’s no big surprise.

The trademark only exists in North America where, by law, you’re required to defend trademark infringements. Otherwise there’s little point in having the trademark.

But cos it’s only in N. America, it explains why Fuji can get away with this:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuji/roubaix-15-compact-2013-road-bike-ec041879

And Endura can get away with this:
https://endura.co.uk/product-detail.asp?ProductID=35

Still, it’s keeping the cycling community occupied on Twitter and internet forums. 🙂

I’d rename it the Specialised Roubiax cafe

That ought to work!

Top thread reading there!

I hope they realise that this kind of behaviour is more damaging to their brand than a guy with a shop named after a town

Based on Specialized’s previous history of legal action against common sense…. no they will not realise 😉

And will they claim to own the name Paris next?

And will they claim to own the name Paris next?

Well surely they most own one of the most overused words lately too… EPIC!

Yeah, he could call it Paris-Roubaix café Cycles? Doesn’t sound as good though.

…P-Roubaix Café Cycles?

How can it be specialized IP when it is also the name of a town?

They also have ‘Epic’ trademarked. I don’t blame the Specialized lawyers, I blame the stupidity of a copyright system that allows such words to be copyrighted. However, it’s nothing compared to the madness that Monsanto has been allowed to get away with.

pillocks

They’ve trademarked that too. Please edit your comment 😉

So the bike shop was established in 2012. Which is fine, but by that point the name Roubaix was pretty well-known as a Specialized brand. I think I was aware of Specialized’s Roubaix bikes before I knew the story behind the name. So yeah, I think some people who see the shop name might automatically think ‘Specialized’.

Of course you gotta have some sympathy for the bike shop, but there have been more severe injustices done in the International MegaCorp vs Small-Town LittleGuy battle. And as an aside, I don’t see what it’s got to do with any wars or PTSD.

I’ve just been outside and hopped over a rock.
I may jump over a stump later.

That’ll teach ’em.

Specialized Hardrock Cafe?