Initial interest

With hidden cameras installed in
all hotel bedrooms, the cats took
in in turns to watch for illicit
raids on the minibar ...

The keenly-awaited trial and current tribulations of International Monetary Fund head Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn have attracted copious quantities of media attention following his recent arrest for sexual assault in a New York Hotel. There has also been considerable speculation as to whether DSK, as he is conveniently known, should be relieved of his all-powerful role as a maker and breaker of national economies, and also as to whether it is merely the man himself who stands accused -- or all men, as personified by him. So great is the public interest in the affair that the celebrated French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy (or BHL, as he is conveniently known) has had to break with the generally-accepted practice of philosophers today and say something that ordinary people can understand in coming to the defence of his banking friend.

This episode is being watched with interest by more than just the curious public and concerned parties. An Italian company, DSK Srl from Milan, has registered as a Community trade mark (or CTM, as it is conveniently known) a logo (left) representing the now famous letters DSK for goods and services in Classes 2, 28 ("Games and playthings ...") and 40.

A Spanish company, Silver Sanz SA of Barcelona, has also registered as a CTM a DSK logo (right), this time for goods in Class 9: "galvanic batteries, fuel cells, batteries and accumulators and parts therefor; primary packs of rechargeable alkaline batteries; apparatus and instruments for charge surveillance and control of aforementioned goods".

The IPKat has been wondering about the impact of all this publicity for the IMF DSK on the other ones.  Clearly this is not the sort of event against which even the best standards and practices of IP portfolio management can easily guard.  One imagines that, on these facts at least, any attempt by the trade mark owner to cash in on the publicity would be regarded as being in bad taste -- but in different circumstances that might not be so, such as when the owner of a trade mark consisting of a three-letter figurative mark finds that someone who shares the same initials has just won a major golf tournament, been elected to high office or accorded some other high-level status.  Merpel says, if anyone was considering a marketing campaign based on bad taste, the descriptions listed in respect of these two marks would be easy to make use of.

More famous initials:
JFK
LBJ
JK Rowling
PJ Proby
VS Naipul
EL Wisty
IP Kat