Game Changer?

Can a blogger change the world?

Or at least the Laser sailing world?

Maybe.



Most of my readers probably know that the Laser sailing world is in an unholy mess right now. There is a legal dispute going on between Bruce Kirby (the designer of the Laser) and LaserPerformance (the builder of the Laser in North America and Europe.)

Bruce Kirby says that LaserPerformance no longer has his approval to build Lasers to his design, and claims that they are infringing his design rights by continuing to do so. We haven't heard much from LaserPerformance but undoubtedly they will have some legal defense to Kirby's lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Kirby has appointed two other builders in Canada and the Netherlands to build the Laser. But he isn't calling it a Laser; he is calling the boat a Kirby Torch. He can't call it a Laser because LaserPerformance owns the right to use Laser trademarks, the Laser name and starburst symbol, in North America and Europe.

At least everybody thought they did.

Then along came Pam.



Pam, along with her husband Doug, writes the blog called Improper Course.

Pam has been doing some digging into the ownership of the Laser trademarks and their current status. It  turns out the Laser trademarks being used by LaserPerformance are owned by a couple of offshore corporate entities called Velum and Karaya. And Pam has dug up some evidence that there are some issues affecting both these trademarks.

On April 23, Pam wrote a post LASER Trademark for Running Regattas.  Pam reported that "in the US, Velum holds the trademark in the class of services that pertain to organizing sporting events, namely, sailing competitions, and regattas." Nothing to do with actually building and selling boats at all. And as Pam pointed out, Velum, or LaserPerformance, don't actually run Laser regattas. That is typically done by sailing clubs. So what's going on?

On May 5,  Pam (aka Mrs P) posted on the Laser Forum that she had spoken with a representative for Bruce Kirby in the previous week.

Then on May 7, Bruce Kirby Inc. filed a petition with the US Trademark Office asking them to cancel the Laser trademark owned by Velum on the grounds that they had "abandoned" the trademark by allowing numerous third parties to use it.



Interesting. However, it doesn't seem to me that the Laser trademark for running regattas is central to the issue of who has the right to use the Laser trademark on boats. But wait, there's more...



On May 7, Pam published another post Laser Trademarks Up for Grabs?. This time she turned her attention to the LASER trademarks owned by Karaya, the ones that do actually pertain to the class of goods that includes sailboats and sails. She tracked the transfers of these trademarks between various corporate entities and the name changes of some of those entities. She discovered that it seems that the trademarks may have been conveyed at one point to an entity that wasn’t yet legally in existence, and that the last entity to hold clear title to the trademarks has since been dissolved.

It's all very confusing. It makes my head ache to read the story. Doug has made a little diagram to make it all clearer but that makes my head ache too.

But if there really is some question over whether LaserPerformance (through some associated company) actually does have the right to use the Laser trademarks, that would be a real game changer.




Can a blogger change the world?

Or at least the Laser sailing world?

Maybe.