Ebay: Keep Calm & Carry On Copyright violation!!

darrenforster99

Let's hope this is sorted and let Mark Coop know that he can't just go around trademarking things that are already in mass use.

The funny thing was the other day I was walking past a new TJ Hughes shop and was thinking about a phrase in the window.

I thought wow that phrase probably isn't trademarked at all, but if I trademark it, the same way Mark Coop has trademarked the "Keep Calm and Carry On" phrase I could make a mint from loads of companies that are taken over.

Obviously if this case rules in favour of Mark Coop then the trademark scene is just going to get ridiculous, I mean what's to stop other people trademarking other versions of the Keep Calm phrase - like Keep Calm and Have a Cuppa... you'll have numerous people all with different variations of Keep Calm trademarks.

Also I'm just wondering whether or not Mark Coop might be in trouble anyway, because the Stereophonics record "Keep Calm and Carry On" was released before he trademarked the phrase, and surely the record company would have already trademarked the phrase for the album? - or if not would that not mean it's a "general phrase" that was used before he trademarked it

antrobus

There's a good piece in the Daily Telegraph here - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/8794171/Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On-poster-is-causing-a-storm.html - that details the history of the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' phenomenom.

The key phrase to note is "having failed to register the slogan as a UK trademark, he succeeded in registering it as an EU trademark". Coop tried to trademark the phrase with the IPO who (no doubt) referred him to the reply given in the case of Arkel v Pressdram, but had more success with the OHIM who were presumably too stupid to check with the IPO before issuing the paperwork.

MaggieBaking

Just reading about this and I'm horrified! What a nerve this man has!!!

I've just signed the petition, good luck to the campaign

http://keepcalmcampaign.co.uk/#share

Obviously_the_best

you ought to bombard the eBay law enforcement request form, https://lers.corp.ebay.com/AIP/portal/home.do