Big boys picking on the little fella

[PurleySquire]

I don't know if this has made it on here already, but it seems that Specialized are putting their corporate might to get a tiny bike shop to change their name and not use the word "Roubaix".

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/12/ ... ecialized/

A Canadian veteran of the Afghanistan war who operates a tiny bicycle shop in Cochrane is being forced to change his store’s name after being threatened with a lawsuit by one of the giants of the U.S. bike industry.

Dan Richter, owner of Cafe Roubaix Bicycle Studio, located above the famous Mackay’s Ice Cream in Cochrane, says he received a letter from the lawyers of big bicycle maker Specialized several months ago, demanding he change the store’s name because the company owns the trademark on the word Roubaix, which they use to market a brand of road bike.

Richter, however, says he didn’t name his store after the company’s bike, rather after a region in France that hosts one of the most famous bike races in the world, the gruelling 117-year-old Paris-Roubaix. Because the name is an icon of bike culture, and graces hundreds of other products from bike tires to a brand of cycling tights sold by MEC (and even other road bikes), Richter says he has a good case to keep the store name, but is capitulating because he can’t afford a legal fight in court.

 

[jonnyboy666]

yeah i heard about this earlier today, just another reason for me not to like specialized.

idiots, what i would love to happen is the french government to intervene and say they are suing specialized for naming their bikes after the region.

 

[PurleySquire]

Have you seen the Spesh Facebook page? I wager the PR dept are going to be in "disaster recovery mode" this weekend. It's great to see a bit of people power for a change.

 

[jonnyboy666]

no i haven't but then i wouldn't follow them as i don't like the brand, i have seen the viral of the situation though, hopefully they will see that they are being stupid though. i assume their FB and titter are getting abuse though for it.

 

[lewisfoto]

This Intellectual property sh*t is out of control. Earlier the year Disney tried to trade mark Dia de Los Muertos, but backed off when the Latino community in LA protested. Bottom line is that if the name belongs to anyone it is the people of Roubaix, not a multi-national corporate bike builder.

 

[NeilM]

It's their approach that really pisses me off. I saw a comment somewhere from the MD of Specialized Canada justifying why they were suing. I don't suppose it occurred to anyone at Specialized to maybe go visit the shop and talk the situation through with the owner. :facepalm:

 

[kenaltobelli]

i like thier bikes but never owned one;
maybe its just me but they are the audi/bmw of the bike world[look how good my bike is]
if people kick up a fuss it may stop this sort of thing going on;
power to the people;come the revolution and all that :facepalm: :xmas-big-grin:
regards wolfy

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

Funnily enough that particular Specialized bike was on my final short list if I get a new bike in the Spring.

My short list just got a bit shorter.

 

[matthew71]

never liked the brand,and will never buy anything from them

 

[M-Power]

This Intellectual property sh*t is out of control. Earlier the year Disney tried to trade mark Dia de Los Muertos, but backed off when the Latino community in LA protested. Bottom line is that if the name belongs to anyone it is the people of Roubaix, not a multi-national corporate bike builder.

+1