[Jewelry making - Article 00091] - Re: [Orchid] Let's get Yurman

[Smith, Calvin C.]

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    A few have said, "Don't worry about Yurman, he is not hurting you."
    I see that he represents something that is very dangerous for all of
    us. If I understand correctly, Yurman is squatting on the Etruscan
    style and claiming it as his. This does not effect most of us because
    our work is not in that style. Now consider that he represents a very
    successful business plan. Other well financed groups may in the
    future follow the same plan and squat on other styles. Maybe the next
    will be Art Deco style. After that, maybe Art Nouveau. It may be
    possible that in the future, there will be several well financed
    groups that "own" styles that they aggressively defend with highly
    skilled lawyers. If this happens, most of us will start to feel the
    pain. Small independent jewelers will have to restrict their work to
    specific "looks" that avoid the looks used by these large well
    financed groups. 

    This is interesting, because if I understand, "Trade Dress"
    properly, it does not give Yurman the right to own the Etruscan
    style. Let me use McDonald's Hamburgers as an illustration. They have
    the golden arches as their symbol. They own Ronald McDonald as their
    "spokesman". They have other characters like "The Hamburgler", but
    their business is selling food. These extra things are what makes
    McDonald's unique in the fast food market. A competitor may be
    prevented from using a pair of yellow pyramids and a circus acrobat
    as symbols because it would be too similar to the overall look of
    McDonalds. Still McDonalds does not copyright the way they cook their
    hamburgers. If McDonalds used the Yurman business plan, they may
    threaten legal action against independent businesses who sell
    hamburgers because the two hamburgers look too similar. But McDonalds
    "Trade Dress" protection is not in the look of their hamburgers, it
    is in the package of the golden arches together with Ronald McDonald
    and their other myriad things that make their look unique. 

    So it appears that Yurman is stepping a bit outside of his umbrella
    of Trade Dress protection, but he is successfully doing this because
    he employs the better team of lawyers and he picks his fights. Here
    is a plan that may work in fighting his dangerous practice. 

    Find someone who has been selling the Etruscan style before Yurman
    started. This needs to be someone who has taken a copyright out on
    some of their work. Now have this person sue Yurman. The goal here is
    not to recover money from Yurman, it is to create a legal precedent
    that shows that Yurman does not own the Etruscan style. He will keep
    his Trade Dress protection for the overall look of his business.
    Small time jewelers will be able to continue their business
    unharrassed as long as they don't try to make their stores look like
    a Yurman store. More important, you won't have to worry about other
    well financed businesses squatting on other styles and restricting
    the industry overall.
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