'Survivor' Term Comes Under Fire

[njsteve]

How about "rovivrus" (survivor spelled backwards). but seriously, many of the moparphiles out there remember the mid-80s when Chrysler slammed down on anyone using the term "mopar" anywhere in anything. At the time most people thought "mopar" was a slang term but it was actually the original parts division name (like GM's Delco) of Chrysler "MOtor PARts." They went way overboard in their legal attacks and the hobby struck back furiously with publicized boycots of new vehicles and some very innovative other methods, including t-shirts depicting Chrylser's Gen Counsel with a giant screwdriver, screwing a roadrunner to the wall. Due to the backlash of thier own customer base, they eventually backed off of their zero tolerence policy due to all of the bad publicity. When it comes to trademarks, a company has to vigorously protect the mark or it becomes part of the public domain, like "Jeep" and "Kleenex" and they lose their rights to it.