Specialized PR disaster
Discussion
Surprised not to have seen this topic on here already, although the search can't really be relied upon.
In short, Specialized are sueing a small LBS who has used the word 'Roubaix' in his shop name.
Specialized is facing a global social media backlash after news broke it is threatening a lawsuit against a two year Canadian bike-shop called Café Roubaix. Specialized owns the trademark for the use of Roubaix on certain cycling products. Café Roubaix produces a carbon wheelset emblazoned with Café Roubaix. Roubaix is a town in France famous in cycling for being the destination of the classic Paris-Roubaix road race.
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/specialized-facin...
This, as you might well imagine has not gone down well with the cycling community at large and Specialized are getting a bit of a kicking across the various bike mags and social streams:
https://www.facebook.com/specializedbicycles?filte...
Someone has already come up with this:
In short, Specialized are sueing a small LBS who has used the word 'Roubaix' in his shop name.
Specialized is facing a global social media backlash after news broke it is threatening a lawsuit against a two year Canadian bike-shop called Café Roubaix. Specialized owns the trademark for the use of Roubaix on certain cycling products. Café Roubaix produces a carbon wheelset emblazoned with Café Roubaix. Roubaix is a town in France famous in cycling for being the destination of the classic Paris-Roubaix road race.
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/specialized-facin...
This, as you might well imagine has not gone down well with the cycling community at large and Specialized are getting a bit of a kicking across the various bike mags and social streams:
https://www.facebook.com/specializedbicycles?filte...
Someone has already come up with this:
Edited by option click on Monday 9th December 14:30
It's ridiculous. Common sense* would seem to dictate that he would win the legal battle, but he just can't afford to fight it. The reason specialized give for their action is that they would have to surrender their trademark if they don't defend it. Being granted the trademark on a place name is a bit stupid to begin with tbh.
My favourite part is people trolling the question section on the specialized website
*which sadly doesn't always rile in these sorts of situations.
My favourite part is people trolling the question section on the specialized website
*which sadly doesn't always rile in these sorts of situations.
Destroying Specialized's credibility within the cycling community.
They just look like a bunch of corporate bully boy tossers!
Budweiser tried this on a few years ago against a Czech brewery Budvar which was thrown out after it was proven that the Czech brewery had been around for over 100 years before the American one.....
They just look like a bunch of corporate bully boy tossers!
Budweiser tried this on a few years ago against a Czech brewery Budvar which was thrown out after it was proven that the Czech brewery had been around for over 100 years before the American one.....
The talk of boycotts on other sites is amusing. It’s like people refusing to buy any Nestle products and then realising that it involved living in a world without Kit Kats.
I’m not a fan of any of their bikes that I can afford but I was going to get some BG spd shoes next year. Even just reading here there’s quite a few folk who’d struggle to find saddles that fit them as well as some of the Specialized offerings.
It seems to me that the guy at Café Roubaix should’ve done his homework and perhaps checked if it was OK and they should have perhaps been less corporate, faceless and litigious.
I bet there’ll be barely a blip in the balance sheet for Specialized off the back of this.
I’m not a fan of any of their bikes that I can afford but I was going to get some BG spd shoes next year. Even just reading here there’s quite a few folk who’d struggle to find saddles that fit them as well as some of the Specialized offerings.
It seems to me that the guy at Café Roubaix should’ve done his homework and perhaps checked if it was OK and they should have perhaps been less corporate, faceless and litigious.
I bet there’ll be barely a blip in the balance sheet for Specialized off the back of this.
bakerstreet said:
I can see the cafe owner having to change the name of his shop within a year.
No problem having a cafe called Roubaix but putting the name on bike wheels is what this case is about.You can have a shop called the Mars Cafe but as soon as you begin to sell a chocolate bar filled with nougat and caramel and call it a Mars then you fall foul of trademark rules.
I know it's not the done thing to side with the bigger business, but I think Specialized are right to defend their trademark.
If they just let it slide, then any other, much bigger, business could produce a cycle product, like wheels, called the Roubaix and when Specialized took them to court could point out that Spesh had declined to defend their trademark at an earlier opportunity.
And saying that Specialized should never have been given the trademark in the first place, as it is the name of a town, is a bit disingenuous. Plenty of other products are named after places/things, Ford had the Cortina, Granada and Capri; Triumph the Bonneville, Toledo and Dolomite - all placenames, but no one else would be able to launch a car or bike product without risk of being taken to court.
If they just let it slide, then any other, much bigger, business could produce a cycle product, like wheels, called the Roubaix and when Specialized took them to court could point out that Spesh had declined to defend their trademark at an earlier opportunity.
And saying that Specialized should never have been given the trademark in the first place, as it is the name of a town, is a bit disingenuous. Plenty of other products are named after places/things, Ford had the Cortina, Granada and Capri; Triumph the Bonneville, Toledo and Dolomite - all placenames, but no one else would be able to launch a car or bike product without risk of being taken to court.
As normal, social media campaigns and knee jerk "+1" crap gets in the way of the real story. As posted above, he's not being sued for being the roubaix cafe, but for making Robaix wheelsets.
If Spesh let it slide, what's next? A Roubaix bike?
For all I don't auto side with big business, I also don't get why the little guy is automatically right so some people - it seems noone really wanted to check the facts before the anti Spesh facebook / twitter madness started...
If Spesh let it slide, what's next? A Roubaix bike?
For all I don't auto side with big business, I also don't get why the little guy is automatically right so some people - it seems noone really wanted to check the facts before the anti Spesh facebook / twitter madness started...
boyse7en said:
I know it's not the done thing to side with the bigger business, but I think Specialized are right to defend their trademark.
I was inclined to agree with you, right up to the point when it transpired that the trade mark apparently wasn't Specialized's to defend in the first place!Some Gump said:
As normal, social media campaigns and knee jerk "+1" crap gets in the way of the real story. As posted above, he's not being sued for being the roubaix cafe, but for making Robaix wheelsets.
If Spesh let it slide, what's next? A Roubaix bike?
For all I don't auto side with big business, I also don't get why the little guy is automatically right so some people - it seems noone really wanted to check the facts before the anti Spesh facebook / twitter madness started...
The TM does not strictly speaking cover wheels.... (not to mention ASI actually own the worldwide TM and lease it to Specialized in the USA believe Specialized breached the lease agreement registering the TM in Canada).If Spesh let it slide, what's next? A Roubaix bike?
For all I don't auto side with big business, I also don't get why the little guy is automatically right so some people - it seems noone really wanted to check the facts before the anti Spesh facebook / twitter madness started...
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/src...
Also they have forced shops with the name epic in the name to change the name before.
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