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back to article Martha Stewart criticised for swoop on town name

American cooking and home decorating guru Martha Stewart has upset the residents of her newly adopted home town by trade marking the name for her home decorating products. Trade mark law may not extend as far as outraged residents fear, though. Stewart has moved to the chic town of Katonah in upstate New York where she now …

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  1. heystoopid

    Sounds like

    Sounds like , she would have about as much chance , as McDonald's has of getting to exclusively register the corporations trading name in Scotland!

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  2. Dillon Pyron

    Housewares

    So if I were to open a business in Katonah called "Katonah Housewares" I'd be protected from Martha's wrath? I didn't think so.

    And yes, McDonald's could get exclusive use. They more money than Scotland.

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  3. Vince

    Upstate NY?

    I know this article is probably from a NYC-centric view, but please refrain from referring to something as "upstate NY" unless it _really_ is upstate. Like Saranac Lake, or Watertown. I guess Albany, Syracuse, or Buffalo. Even Ithaca or Binghamton could pass. But some town that is like a 10 minute train ride from NYC itself does not really qualify as "upstate".

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  4. I.M.Fantom

    No Katonah domains available.

    I checked and all the Katonah .com .net .org etc domains were registered long before martha came on the scene. .info is still available. Maybe the town should register it to give out information on the town?

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  5. Jack

    Yes, Upstate NY

    First, yes, Westchester County is upstate NY. Katonah is about an hour train ride north of NYC: I know, I grew up 10 miles from there in an even tinier town called Pound Ridge.

    Next, this town, like most of northern Westchester, is so full of lawyers and money I seriously doubt she'll get away with anything. The local paper, The Patent Trader, has been covering this for weeks now. The residents understand fully what, if anything, is at stake.

    Last, what they seem to be most concerned about (according the local paper) is the violation of their own sense of ownership. "Nobody Owns Katonah" is another way of saying "Hands off 'my' town name". Yes, they want to protect all 3 of the local businesses using "Katonah" in their name. But it's deeper than that. A proprietary sense runs deep in these towns. They take property very seriously.

    With that proprietary sense as fuel, plus a healthy dose of the old-nouveau-riche snubbing the new-nouveau-riche, it should be fun to watch!

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Upstate

    I'm in the Syracuse area, and no one here calls it Upstate NY. We are Central NY. And Westchester county isn't upstate, either. There are commercials that run about visiting "Beautiful Upstate NY" and even they are referring to north of here.

    I had family in the Westchester area (they've since relocated right near Fishkill,) and they preferred to think they lived "outside the city" like it was a suburb. It was a 45 minute drive into NYC from where they lived, and they all worked in the city.

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  7. Neil Jones

    Phew!

    As the owner of a double-glazing company in the small village of Microsoft-on-the-Wold, this is a great relief to hear.

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