Jete Urbane/Internet

Tag Game(War) over trademark copyright
Alb-Club Qershor 2001

Taubinit, Zentana. - The latest developments from Taubinit, capital of Zentana, brought to a new level of uncertainty, the possibility of finding a quick fix, and a final solution to the unseen trademark copyright dispute between two companies over the use of the same trademark initials "DP". No answer yet to the question: Who is who? To the many customers, sympathetic, and users in love with the brand product "DP", this dispute is becoming more and more not a Tag Game anymore, but a Tag War (tag = a children's game in which one player chases the rest till he touches one, who then takes his place).


First, "DP", the original company managed by one of its original founders, took the matters lightly. He dismissed the possibility that his closest lieutenant, who one day decided to quit, and leave the company, will accuse him, the president, as a despotic leader, hallucinated , incoherent, "a true iron fist" manager, who was running the company in red, very close to a bankruptcy. But to his surprise, the unexpected happened. All his lieutenant's accusations in essence might be very true, but the lieutenant himself was seen by many who knew him quite well, not possessing enough marbles to take the reins of the company, a permanent pupil of many old masters, with his buttocks not trained for the hard ride of Zentana's company’s politics roller coaster. Some called his jump from his childish smooth ride to big company politics “cotton-buttock funny jump".

The original "DP" president, who was one of his masters, maybe because of his well-known vanity, neglected one of the elementary and fundamental protective company procedures in hiring the closest lieutenants. He didn't ask him to sign the indispensable agreement, so routinely done with all signor executives, that all the trademark copyrights, whole market secrets, entire database of the company, all the inter-official correspondence, and all the future inventions, are and should remain property of the company in any given circumstance. This first and foremost, to protect companies from new competition from its own employees, similar to the lieutenant's case, who dissatisfied, one day left the company. It was an unforgivable mistake on his part; he is still biting his nails in anger.

He never could have imagined what was going to happen later. His former lieutenant, who has not only one, but many masters, managed to collect here and there some funds and signatures necessary to establish a new company and named the company with almost identical name by using the same trademark initial "DP". To the surprise of almost everyone, the main body - TA LAG, the agency recognized by the Zentana's government, as the only body who can grant patents and trademarks licenses to Zentana's companies, approved and recognized the right to use the trademark "DP" by the new established company run by the former lieutenant. In fact, many market and trade analysts think that the lieutenant, in fact, is falling into the play of the biggest competitor of "DP". But they are not sure, they cannot tell yet, if all this tag war to capture markets will make the new company just established, competitive enough in the new market of 2001.

One thing is for sure. The customers of the brand product "DP", especially those of the far away provinces, will be thrown in a total confusion. This because, with the new developments,(the Agency maybe unaware of the existing confusion, however, this supposition seems not plausible, too naive and unlikely) helped to deepen this confusion. The Agency approved to amend partially the name of the company, only the second part of the trademark initials; from "DP" to "DP-UV" of the original company "DP". So the new trademark initials of the original company "DP" now are "UV", which will be seen in the easy of the public as a new brand, almost unknown for the vast majority of the uneducated and unsophisticated customers. In supermarkets, the brands products "DP"(new company) and "UV"(original company) are placed side by side on the superstores’ shelves, and it is more likely that the uninformed customer with regard to the new developments, seeing the brand name "DP" with the same trademark symbols as the old one, will choose this new product (not sure if it is a real product) without realizing that the old product now is advertized under a new brand name "UV". It will create a new wave of dissatisfaction amongst many customers; they soon will realize that they were tricked by the appearance of the box product; when they will go home and open the box, they would find out that the product is not the same. They will try to return it, but it might be too late. The companies that sell the product have changed their policy with regard to the returned goods. If it happens that the box of the product is open, they would not accept any return and cash it back to the customers; currently they would be unable to replace or substitute it with the original brand.

Wait and see, we will hear the old refrain: "Where did you have your eyes? You should open your eyes and be vigilant when you buy a new product. You must read very carefully all small prints and get informed very well before you decide to buy and further, open any box of goods."

Zentanan Independent News Agency(ZINA)