It looks like people take issue with our use of TM after our name and tagline. See Gordon’s post at the Conglomerate and this comment from Josh’s post:
Great blog, but do you really want to trademark this: “Academic commentary on law, business, economics and more�? It’s tacky. There are millions of bloggers out there, and if everyone starts trademarking everything then there will hardly be an un-trademarked phrase available. It’s not in the spirit of openness that the internet thrives on. Are you really going to bring a trademark action against some other blogger that also wants to use this byline? Look around at the most famous and widely read bloggers. They don’t thrive because of their cleverly trademarked name or phrase; it’s because the quality of their work draws people back. Any “copycat� would just wither on the vine. You’re not selling widgets here, you’re having a conversation.
I slapped on “TM” with little thought (Geoff and I did discuss whether SM was more appropriate) and out of habit (when I worked in-house, one of my jobs was to provide legal review of product catalogs, marketing materials, etc., and the main thing this entailed was slapping on TM and ® at every opportunity). After further thought, I’ll pull it off the tagline. I’m inclined to leave it on the name. Thoughts?
