PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL

Canada.com reports that the Canadian gay men and lesbians are not happy about moves by the Vancouver Pride Society to assert rights in the term PRIDE. A transsexual had to take out membership of the society to use the terms ManPride and TrannyPride for her events, and has said that she will protest with a group of others at the Gay Pride event. The leader of the Vancouver Pride Society has responded that the trade mark attempt had been made

‘to protect the trademark against for-profit individuals or companies exploiting it in the queer market…If we don't do that, there's a long line of people who are quite eager to get their hands on that trademark and licence it for thousands and thousands of dollars back to us.’

The IPKat has sympathy with the Society’s position. However, he notes that all the members have a stake in making the event what it is, and so placing it into centralised hands is going to stop, or at least make it difficult, for those who established its popularity from using it.