Grey county boy forced to change name

[M]

Manitoba Changes Name, Fearing Lawsuit From Some Dick

from ChartAttack

Electronic whizkid Manitoba has been forced into a name change. Handsome Dick Manitoba, frontman for U.S. punk band The Dictators, sued the Canadian artist (real name Dan Snaith) for trademark infringement — strange considering the punk has never released anything under that name.

From now on, as a result, whenever you mean Manitoba, you’ll have to stop mid-sentence and say a different name: "Caribou." Unable to risk the cost of losing the suit, Snaith backed down and changed the band name to that of his fuzzy forest friends.

Snaith says he pulled the name from his own stoned experience — having conversed with many a talking caribou when some hippie pals inspired him to try a "vision quest" in the woods. Or he could be making it all up and just picked the name at random, like any other band.

To add insult to, well, insult, Snaith received news of the lawsuit right before his first ever show in Manitoba — no word yet on whether Handsome Dick will be suing the province for existing.

For some reason the name game always seems to hit Canada. This year we’ve already seen Death From Above forced into a suffix and then there was that ridiculous "X" that Bush were forced to add to their name back in the mid-'90s, when a defunct Can-rock band pushed the issue.

Snaith was first in total disbelief at the legal action, but has quickly moved on. A Caribou website has already been set up and the Manitoba back catalog will soon be re-released under the new moniker. Snaith’s last album was the well-received Up In Flames in 2003, which he toured with a full Manitoba band including multiple drummers, vocalists, a guitarist, and people on glockenspiel and melodica.

A new Caribou release is currently in the works.

Mani - oh wait -caribou

[guigsy]

Snaith says he pulled the name from his own stoned experience — having conversed with many a talking caribou when some hippie pals inspired him to try a "vision quest" in the woods. Or he could be making it all up and just picked the name at random, like any other band.

hilarious. i like him more now.

[StoneMtn]

I've always said intellectual property law is exciting, contrary to what most people think. Finally, some proof!

[shitidiot]

go GREY COUNTY!

country roads

take me home

to the place

i belong

grey county

mountain momma

take me home

country roads

[SaggyBalls]

listen to the music and think about that idea juxtaposed by the canadian wilderness and countless amounts of drugs (possibly...)

go dan.

[Mr. Musicface]

Geez, that's dumb. It's not like anyone was ever gonna pick up a Manitoba album or go to a show and think "hey this isn't the dude from the The Dictators, I want my money back".

And I thought you couldn't have a trademark on a single real word anyway (unlike a made up word like "Microsoft") so what's the deal there anyway?

Maybe White Lion should sue The White Stripes for trademark infringement as well.

Peace,

Mr. M.

[hamilton]

And I thought you couldn't have a trademark on a single real word anyway (unlike a made up word like "Microsoft") so what's the deal there anyway?

You're right - you can't. Sounds like Mr. Snaith received some bad legal advice, or else he didn't consult a lawyer at all.

It's interesting that you mention Microsoft, because they lost a trademark infringement suit regarding use of the term "windows" ('cause the other company could prove that the term "window" was used by computer experts before Microsoft created their own program).

[Patchoulia]

Gather 'round kiddies, it's story time:

Once upon a time, I reckon about 1990, my friends and I had awakened after a night of serious drunkenness. And not good drunkenness--we're talking girls still in high school drunkenness, complete with malibu rum, wildberry coolers and peach schnapps and orange juice (we were quite the connoisseurs).

In any case, we awoke and my friend Angie came back from the bathroom (where she had been for an inordinately large amount of time) and declared, "I just took a sh!t and it looked like Manitoba."

"The province?" I asked

"Yep."

Then we all giggled hysterically.

This was funny for many months. I even mailed her a map of Canada, anonymously, with the province of Manitoba coloured in brown marker.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that whenever I think of Manitoba, I think of poo. In fact, I frequently use the word interchangeably with poo as a verb or noun, depending on the situation. If you're pooing, you can say you are "in Manitoba". Or the poo itself could be Manitoba.

Sorry, that's a pretty sh!tty story, I know...

Now where'd I leave my poo rag?

[Jay Funk Dawg]

I was chillin' out with Dan at the Halifax Jazz Festival, where I was playing a gig openning for him... he was a really nice guy, I was commenting on his cool retro moustache, and he was telling me people think he looks like either a child molestor or porn star.

great show, they really had the crowd mezmorized. People didn't know what to think!

Caribou works for me.

[_sniffer_]

Ok, I'm no expert in IP, but I've been around it long enough to know a thing or two. This punk guy probably had a copyright on the stage name Manitoba, whereas the dj did not, therefore the punk guy has every right to punk him out (bad pun, sorry) through legal means. Similarly I'm sure if Ottawa's Dr.Huxtable ever got big enough they would quickly hear from CBS' lawyers for copyright infringement.

To play chain reaction with Microsoft related lawsuits, Microsoft succesfully sued some independant company for releasing a Linux-based Windows emulator by the name of (get this) Lindows. The company was forced to change the name of the product, which they did to L!ndows (the exclamation is not a typo). Microsoft sued them again because the name still resembled Windows too much, so the company changed L!ndows to simply ! .

You see kiddies, IP makes the world go round if you own its rights. If you don't and you try to use it in full or in part, prepare to be sued.