Info/Law

In a development that got a lot of press around here, the town of International Falls, Minnesota, way up on the Canadian border, secured registration of the trademark for the slogan “Icebox of the Nation.” The town had allowed the registration to lapse, and their old archenemies in Fraser, Colorado, near Denver, tried to register the mark out from under its rightful Minnesotan control. Fortunately for International Falls, the Patent and Trademark Office saw things their way.

Even after this harrowing experience, however, the city fathers still don’t have full mastery of intellectual property law, because they mix up trademarks and copyrights in their trash-talking:

“We’re just thrilled the title has been confirmed,” City Administrator Rod Otterness said. “We’ll wait until next week to notify them of their copyright infringement. If Fraser wants to call itself the Icebox of Colorado, we have no problem.”

I’m not really making fun here. Normal people, including city administrators for cities with a population of 6,500, should not have to understand the subtleties of intellectual property law. That’s what they have geeks like me for. But, as Derek recently noted in criticizing the New York Times, journalists could do a lot better. And sure enough, when reporting on an earlier battle between the two towns over the trademark in 1987 (love those open Times archives!), the Times ran an AP story that contained this very same error.

Whatever the right to the slogan is called, Minnesota now has it. And yesterday the high in International Falls was -9 degrees and the low -25 degrees. (My home in St. Paul was a much balmier -5/-16). Fraser? A low of 10 above. That alone should settle the issue.

Filed under: Copyright, Media, Minnesota, Trademarks