jcjeff@ihlpg.UUCP (Richard Jeffreys) (04/21/85)
< Make my day line-eater > >> I also REALLY hate it when I ask for a coke and the usually crude response >> is (as if I failed the bar exam), "We DON't have coke, just pepsi!" >> >> Dwayne Derrick > They HAVE to say that. If they don't, Coca Cola Beverages Incorporated will > go after their collective necks with lawsuits for illegal use of trademark. > "Coke" is a trademark. It remains one only because Coca Cola lawyers go > after places which use the trademark to refer to other cola beverages. > > Hutch There is a law in Britain called "The Trades Descriptions Act". If somebody were to ask for a Coca Cola and recieve a Pepsi, or other cola, this would be a violation of the law, since the goods supplied were not the goods that were asked for. Although this law exisits, there have been many times when I ask for (in Britain) the *generic* "coke" and get palmed off with some other cola. I do not usually complain, as they are more or less the same taste any way, but on several occations I have been told that "We only sell Pepsi". This is what should happen, as the person serving me is only covering themselves against a possible, but unlikly, law suit. The Trade Descriptions Act covers all advertizing to protect the consumer against any goods that are in some way misrepresented, ie: by making the goods look, in some way, different or something other than they actualy are. I was wondering if there is something similar here in America, to the "Trades Description Act" that we have in Britain ?? Oh, I guess I should mention that Coca Cola and Pepsi are registered trademarks. -- [ There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold, and she's buying a staiway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ || From the keys of Richard Jeffreys ( British Citizen Overseas ) || || employed by North American Philips Corporation || || @ AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, Illinois || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ || General disclaimer about anything and everything that I may have typed || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------