More bullying behaviour from Specialized.

[shootingstar]

Hope they reach an out of court settlement. Specialized better realign its budget from legal fees to something else.

(I also know the reporter distantly..he has a regular column on cycling matters in our region/part of the province. The veteran reference looks like something to make the story a bit more interesting.)

I'm intrigued the bike shop is on a 2nd floor. Um...kind of impractical.

[Helene2013]

Read this in French and even that other board some have started NOT saying they own a Specialized and thinking seriously of banning any purchases coming from Specialized. Unless Specialized retracts. Interesting to see the outcome.

[Bike Writer]

I've seen this story about the vet with the shop circulating on social media, perhaps if it gets enough attention it might catch the eye of an attorney to help out the war vet? Companies who bully are no different than people who bully, they stink! However, what goes around comes around, eventually.

[ny biker]

RT ‏@bikesnobnyc This just in: @iamspecialized lawyers say Canadians may not obseve a country bumpkin and remark "Rube, eh?"


(I'm really not clear on how you can trademark a name that is already used for a town, a famous bike race, a train station, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roubaix)

[Owlie]

RT ‏@bikesnobnyc This just in: @iamspecialized lawyers say Canadians may not obseve a country bumpkin and remark "Rube, eh?"

*snort*

I wonder if they've decided to sue the town in France, the town in South Dakota...

[Wahine]

RT ‏@bikesnobnyc This just in: @iamspecialized lawyers say Canadians may not obseve a country bumpkin and remark "Rube, eh?"

Hee hee.

A friend of my made a comment about how the owners of Hard Rock cafe and DOT should be going after Specialized for the use of Hard Rock and Tarmac.

[OakLeaf]

Bet they're not suing Ford for the name Expedition. Ford can pay even more lawyers than Spec' can.



(And okay, I've gotta take shootingstar's bait, even though I know very little about IP law ... why should lawyers work for free, any more than any other profession? Would you ask Wahine to treat uninsured patients for free? Or insured patients who've reached the end of the very few PT sessions most insurance allows? It would be nice if all of us did some pro bono work, of course, but it can't be too big a proportion of their work, and trademark litigation against a big company can be a LOT of work. Lawyers have to keep their lights on and pay their staffs, too ...)

[Owlie]

I've seen this story about the vet with the shop circulating on social media, perhaps if it gets enough attention it might catch the eye of an attorney to help out the war vet? Companies who bully are no different than people who bully, they stink! However, what goes around comes around, eventually.

Spec's Facebook page was full of not-so-nice comments yesterday. I haven't looked, but they've probably been deleting things right and left.

[smilingcat]

I've heard Specialized' FB is trashed with hate message.

City of Roubaix in France should sue Specialized for a license fee for use of their name. French government can back up Roubaix. You know bigger fish eating smaller fish.

Thankfully there are plenty of other competitors to specialized so its not a terrible hardship to buy something else. Another thing is at your local LBS, tell them that you are avoiding Specialized product because of their tactics. If enough LBS hears about it, specialized will get the message.

And shame on Specialized for saying how they support the war veterans in one breath and in the next shut one down. War veterans group should go after Specialized for their double talk.

Stumptown bike versus Stump jumper??? really epic wheel builder in Portland versus Specialized epic whatever it was really?

[shootingstar]

I never said free at all, Oak. And I know that this is not a legal aid case --IP law is not legal aid work.

If one follows the discussion among some lawyers in the past few years... on changing their business models.

(I know personally know a person who has a malpractice suit....it was lost after 10 years. She's going to lose her small condo home because of the legal fees. She's a single, divorced mom with 2 children.)

[OakLeaf]

And again, you haven't addressed the comparison ... the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the USA is medical bills. Yes indeed, doctors and NPs in community health clinics work for quite a bit less than concierge doctors do - but when one of their clients needs to go to the hospital, they get billed on the same plan as the billionaires, and if they can't afford their surgery or their MRI or their chemotherapy or their schizophrenia medications, it's just too bad for them.

What "business model" do you envision, where a small corporation's lawyers would do hundreds of hours of work for 10% or less of the price that Spec's lawyers do the same hundreds of hours of work on their side??? Or realistically, probably less than 1%, when you're talking about what a small bike shop can afford? What do you call it, other than "free," where someone doesn't get paid for the work they do ... even if you're saying they should get paid for the first, say, 20 hours of work, but nothing past that? Never mind that even that "piddling" $5,000 would make a serious dent in most LBS's bottom line.