Can you Trademark a Color?

This question came before a NY judge a couple weeks ago.  Shapes can be trademarked - the Coca-Cola bottle shape, for example, is trademarked.  We also know that you can trademark certain color combinations - for example, the combination of yellow, red and black that Kodak uses is trademarked by Kodak.

What about a single color though?  Many of you (perhaps mostly the females and a few aware gentlemen) know that all Christian Louboutin shoes have a familiar red sole. I think that many of us would quickly yell "Louboutin!!" if we were shown a glimpse of a shoe and it had a red sole.  Is that trademarkable?  (Is that even a word?  It should be).

Read about the issue and weigh in. 

TED - Next Generation and Bionic Fight

I was recently sent two great pieces by a couple of your classmates.

Imelda sent me this article that talks about the pros and cons of GMOs (genetically modified organisms).  It features Joel Salatin, the farmer from Virginia that many of you liked and respected from the Food Inc. video.

Nick sent me this short video.  It is an eleven year old (future leader, I think!) who has a sure sense of self and a real idea of what he wants in his food and what he doesn't want. 

As the first article states, "The argument continues. Some say GMOs are the best hope for the world's food shortage, while others say they are our worst nightmare."

What is your take?

100 calorie limit breached

We should have known Americans wouldn't be happy with their 100 calorie snack-packs.  They did last quite a while though.

 
Snackwells has just up'd their snack-paks from 100 calories to 150 calories. 

Protection from...parents?

Megan sent me this great article.  It should provide a lot of conversation (in the comments section or in class).  You should read the article yourself, but the gist is that a Chicago school is now making rules stating that parents can not send lunches to school with their children.  In other words, the children "must" eat in the school cafeteria.  No more brown bag lunches.

This brings up a few issues - does the school provide as nutritious of a lunch as the parents would have?  Could the parents prepare a lunch for less money than the $2.25 they are required to pay for the cafeteria lunch? Might this force the schools to start to more closely examine their lunches and therefore provide more nutritious lunches?

There are also schools in other parts of the nation that are making similar rules.  For instance, a school in AZ allows home-packed lunches, but nothing that contains white flour, refined sugar or other processed foods.  Good-bye Lunchables!  A school in Alabama forbid any drinks in lunches since there was tap water available in the school.

Thoughts?

Consumer Protection or Endangerment?

We have talked in class about whether there should be laws regarding what products can be produced.  If there is a market, should anything/everything be able to be produced and sold?

There is currently controversy over whether apps alerting consumers to police checkpoints should be allowed. "Locate Speed traps, speed cameras, DUI/DWI check points, red light cameras, active police vehicles and police enforcement areas." is how FuzzAlert advertises themselves.  PhantomAlert is another company producing similar software.  They claim that their product is to discourage drivers from drinking and driving.  Four U.S. Senators have called for Apple to pull the apps from their devices, saying that alerting drunk drivers to the fact that police have a checkpoint set up is potentially dangerous for other people on the road who could be victims of the drunk drivers.

What do you think?  Should we have software that alerts consumers to police checkpoints, speed cameras, etc.?

7 Rip-offs and 20 Worst Drinks

Imelda sent me this great article on ways that consumers get ripped-off in the supermarket.  Have you fallen for any of them?  I have a friend who swears by 5-hour energy drinks.  Now I know that I can just offer her a cup of coffee and save her a lot of money.

I thought you might also find this interesting - the 20 worst drinks in America.  Have you had any of them?  Did you realize what you were consuming (in grams of sugar, etc.)? 

1 Rockstar Energy drink = the sugar in 6 Krispy Kreme donuts. Wow.

Don't even think about having a Dairy Queen Moolatte.

Healthy or Wholesome?

We've talked about some of the downsides associated with terms like "low-cal" and "low-fat" and "healthy:"  Consumer associate lack of flavor with all of those terms.  Given a choice between something that is low-fat and something that is not, people might choose the low-fat option but they will assume that it won't taste as good as the regular option.

Sadie sent me an article the other day regarding a newer marketing tactic.  Enter a new set of terms that are being used to describe food.  Wholesome. Fresh. Natural, Premium. Local.  All of these words stir up images of things that are "good" and yet that taste good.  Terms such as this are vague and hard to define so they avoid accusations of not being true while conjuring up "tasty" images.

Thoughts?