Corporate Knights magazine? Who they?
says Whyte
[This post has been updated]
[Update: Toby Heaps of Corporate Knights asked us to publish the following response:
"I had no real knowledge of these guys until June 12 when I received a nasty letter from their lawyer threatening to sue us for trademark violation over our cover line Best 50 Corporate Citizens. They demanded we pull all copies from newsstand, destroy them, print a retraction in Maclean’s, and pay them $4 million dollars. They further threatened to open a public relations campaign against us if we failed to comply. Turns out they don’t even own the trademark to Best 50 Corporate Citizens. They’ve tried to trademark it and been rejected, twice, on the grounds that it is a descriptive phrase and couldn’t be appropriated for exclusive use. As you might understand, I’m not interested in furthering their efforts to publicize themselves at our expense."-- Maclean's publisher and editor Ken Whyte, responding to Masthead about Corporate Knights magazine's challenge (see earlier post)
[Update: Toby Heaps of Corporate Knights asked us to publish the following response:
"Corporate Knights has an active trademark application for Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada on file with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. It is currently in a stage called examination. It has not been rejected by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
In addition to registered trademarks, Canada also recognizes common-law trademarks, which arise through use. Corporate Knights has used Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada since 2002, and as such, has acquired trademark rights via Canada's common law.
Common law trademarks are enforceable in Canada. Even if a company does not have a registered trademark, if it has a common law trademark that company has trademark rights."]
posted by D. B. Scott at
1:33 pm
8 Comments:
C'mon, Ken! Corporate Knight has been around for about six years. Sure, perhaps they're trying to gain publicity at the expense of Maclean's, but most people in the magazine business know they exist. No need to be mean-spirited. Though that's consistent with much of the content in Maclean's. The National Post. Alberta Report.
I think that lawyers letter was mean spirited, not Ken Whyte's comments...
I guess Kenny Whyte doesn't read much. Who knew?
What is a Corporate Knight? I mean seriously: who reads that magazine? How can you trademark a descriptive phrase like Best 50 Corporate Citizens? Isn't that something people would be up in arms over if the attempt to do so weren't by such a nobody/never heard of it mag? Can you imagine if MacLean's tried to trademark it?
It's nice to see magazines honouring good corporate citizens period. Isn't it even better when people actually read the magazines?
With almost 100,000 copies distributed quarterly in the Globe and Mail, someone reads Corporate Knights. To refer to a magazine that does so, and for 8 years, as "nobodies" is simply snarky and inaccurate.
Someone springing to the defence of Maclean's might at least spell its name right.
95,500 inserts in the Globe! Yeah as a globe reader I know I read every insert. Corporate Knights is junkmail. I'm with Anonymous the fourth, unlikely that anyone is reading CK.
I always read CK. I sometimes read Macleans. While CK may have been quick to the legal letter, it was a tactic that got Ken's attention because he apparently doesn't read Globe&Mail and or/CK. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon (Ken could have avoided all this by calling Toby Heaps, the CK Editor/Founder - I'm sure they could have collaborated in some way). I'm all for magazine collaboration - in this tough economic climate, we need to find ways to work together, not against each other.
Todd Latham is the publisher of ReNew Canada magazine. Of course he reads CK.
Anyhow, what got me is your suggestion that Ken contact Toby. I've been there, done that more than once -- and I've never had the pleasure of a return call.
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