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Comment by post_break | Hacker News Reader

Too little too late. Been munching on popcorn watching all my camping and hiking forums and communities coming together saying they are done buying from them.

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I thought this was a pretty solid response. Out of curiosity, is there anything that you think is "enough" to change your mind?

Abandon the trademark on such a broad name.

Not OP, but dropping all trademark enforcement attempts on the generic term "backcountry" would be the minimum (them using "backcountry.com" should have been as far as they got).

Also, abandon all existing legal action based on that generic term.

Abandon all claims, compensate those already affected, and force the CEO to tender his resignation.

It seems like a legitimate start. IANAL but you do have to defend your trademark or risk losing it. This is an inherent danger of using a common word in a trademark...

> This is an inherent danger of using a common word in a trademark...

You shouldn't be able to trademark a common word in the first place. It's literary colonialism.

Trademarks need to be limited to being consumer protection: A company can only own a word or design or color scheme to the extent it prevents bad actors from fooling customers with deceptively similar names and trade dress. This has the positive side-effect of preventing those same bad actors from harming the company which owns the trademark, but that should be seen as a side-effect, and not as the primary purpose of trademarks.

Ford, Apple, Sharp, Adobe, National, Amazon, Sun, Oracle, etc. all are generic terms.

However, if you look at the trademarks themselves, they have very limited scope and also require specific visual differentiators. The word "Adobe" isn't trademarked, but so that I don't buy the wrong Adobe which is actually malware, it is illegal to advertise or commercially distribute creative digital software bearing the name Adobe and copying its visual likeness. But I could start my own Spanish-themed footwear company called Adobe Footwear. Adobe itself is not trademarked.

I don't think any of these are from generic terms from within their trade.

Those trademarks only apply in certain markets. That's why for example, you also have Ford Models and Apple Vacations.

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