On 06/28/2000, Mary Taft <marytaft[_at_]tricord.com> wrote:
>
> I'm a newbie to the list. I have a Q that is old news in terms
> of my participation any longer, but it is something I've wondered
> about for awhile.
>
> A company which I have since happily exited, put together a pathetic
> sales proposal, in which they took photos of the competitions units
> and used those photos in the proposal to openly, by name, bash the
> competition. My advise as the tech writer, which was wholeheartedly
> ignored and scorned, was NOT to take that tactic and at the very
> least to check with an attorney. Instead, I was forced as a
> condition of remaining employed, to participate in the creation of
> said proposal. Since I was not allowed to put my objection in any
> written form, I did a private log and notarized affidavit. At the
> last minute, the company got jumpy and put "Confidential" and
> "Proprietary" on every page, as if that would make a difference in
> disclosure. They weren't too savvy.
>
> Above and beyond the fact that basic proposal writing classes will
> stress that this tactic is in very poor form, would this constitute
> any kind of copyright infringement?
Depending on the use of the competitors' marks, it would perhaps constitute trademark infringement (although in the U.S. there is a limited right to use the marks of others for truthful advertising, such as what you see in the Subway ads comparing the grams of fat in their subs v. Burger King Whopper, etc.). I don't see how use of a competitor's name or the names of its products would be copyright infringement.
Kevin Grierson
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