Bugzilla – Bug 12574
Squeezebox Server 7.4 exhibiting branding hypervigilance
Last modified: 2009-10-12 07:50:51 UTC
Is it strictly necessary to have the ™ right there in your face on the web UI? It strikes me as being a little tacky. Isn't it enough to keep ©'s and ®'s and ™'s on the settings->information page? I know you guys need to protect your brand and all. But a psychologist might suggest that you're overcompensating for something. Look at Apple's home page & at iTunes. I would guess that Apple is as aggressive as anyone in terms of securing their brand. Aside from a discrete copyright notice at the bottom of the page, there's nary a ™ or ®.
It would be great if we can come up with some less stringent rules, Seth
We only need to display the ® and ™ for our products once...there is no need to have the marks after each and every instance of our product names. This goes for MySb.com as well. This same type of "branding hypervigilance" is present there as well.
Hallelujah! Per the guidance I received from Legal a while back: 1. TM and R need only appear on the first instance on the page. 2. If the text is so small that the TM or R symbol is unreadable, then leave it out. A little splotch has no value.
Moving to a P2. Adding Laura to cc. We will update copy/remove trademarks on an ongoing basis.
Adding Angela to cc.
this is an administrative shuffle on priority fields to help make better judgment on the top end of the priority list. P4->P5, P3->P4, and P2->P3.
Assigning to Michael and moving to the 7.5.0 release (but it's still a P3). Not a major issue, but hopefully something we can include in that release...
Gordon - where do you see these signs?
Squeezebox Server web UI: squeezebox_server.png: Squeezebox™ Server. It's in your face whenever the web UI is open, no matter what page you're on. This is just my opinion, but I think such signs [(c), (tm), (r)] belong on an application's "about" dialog box, or, in our case, on the "Information" page in settings. The switch away from the old "squeezecenter" graphic's font and the addition of "tm" has cheapened the look. It says to the consumer, in effect, "we're here to make money off you" rather than "we hope you enjoy our products." Putting this in the user's face all the time doesn't protect the brand...at best, it builds cynical resignation, and at worst, it builds resentment. No Squeezebox user, upon seeing 'Squeezebox™', will say to themselves "Oh, how nice for LogiTech that they've trademarked 'Squeezebox'!" Instead, they'll likely say to themselves "Well, I guess that kind of sucks for all the concertina makers around the globe." In the very spot where you want to look generous and inviting, you end up looking greedy and defensive. Again, just my opinion. But look at iTunes: the about box is the only place on the app that you'll see any sort of a commercial sign. And yet iTunes manages to be a huge conduit of revenue for Apple.
I'm sorry, new targeting guidelines. Web UI might be 8.0 or something else.