Canadian Mint Claims Rights To Words "One Cent"

knorthern knight writes "A weird intersection of copyright/trademark with politics is playing out in Canada. Short background: various Canadian cities and municipalities have launched a publicity/lobbying campaign seeking a fixed take from the GST (Goods and Services Tax, a national Canadian sales tax similar to European VAT). The amount sought is 1 cent for each dollar of the purchase price. This is summarized by the slogan 'One Cent of the GST NOW.' According to a press release, the Royal Canadian Mint (the federal agency that prints Canadian paper currency and stamps Canadian coins) has demanded from the City of Toronto $47,680 in royalties for use of the phrase 'one cent', and the image of the Canadian penny. $10,000 covers the use of the words 'one cent' in the campaign website address (www.onecentnow.ca) and email address (onecentnow@toronto.ca). An additional $10,000 is demanded for the use of these words in the campaign phone number (416-ONE-CENT). The remaining $27,680 covers the use of the image of the Canadian penny in printed materials such as pins and posters." Here's a National Post article on the brouhaha.

Comments

Re:ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

> I thought the Romans had the cent long before Canada.

ummmm, no. They had the denarius. That's why British LSd money referred to their _penny_ as 1d -- d for denarius.

And a _penny_ was not the same thing as a _cent_. There were 240 "old" pence in the pound.

Those of us on {Dollars|Euros|Pesos|Rands|etc.}, and Cent(avo)s are using new fangled decimal money that came much later on.

"One Cent"

[kaszeta]

I'm a little surprised that they assert that "one cent" is their phrase, since, unlike US coinage, they actually use numeric denominations on their coins. The Canadian penny actually says "1 cent" on it.

Maybe the US Mint should insist they get paid instead...

Oh, and the Royal Canadian Mint isn't a "Federal Agency". It's a Crown Corporation (status similar to the US Post Office).

trademarks of common vocabulary

[e**(i pi)-1]

This fits well into other cases, where one has attempted to trademark common vocabulary:

• "You have mail" AOL
• "Hall of Fame" National Baseball Hall of Fame
• "Entrepreneur" Entreprenour Media
• "Windows" Microsoft (ruled generic 1993)
• "Memory game" Ravensburger (a website I maintain was involved in that once)

Tradmarking common vocabulary is as questionable as patenting common tasks. The problem is that it is often cheaper to pay off than go through a legal fight. And that encourages the litigators. The good thing is that such battles usually are PR desasters for the companies involved.

RCM != Paper Money

[alexburke]

the Royal Canadian Mint (the federal agency that prints Canadian paper currency and stamps Canadian coins)

Nope. The Royal Canadian Mint stamps coins only. The Bank of Canada is responsible for paper money, the actual printing of which is performed by Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited and BA International Inc (formerly British American Banknote).

Re:ummm

[UbuntuDupe]

No, but (odd bit of trivia), they did have the census, which measured someone's total wealth, and eventually morphed into Zins in German, their word for (bank) interest.

Re:My two cents

[trolltalk.com]

It's not a joke, but the mint will lose in court.

1. There is NO copyright notice on ANY Canadian currency.
2. Any copyright old enough to defeat a prior use claim will have expired
3. Any copyright recent enough to be enforceable is defeated by prior use, not just in Canada, but other countries
4. If they insist, we'll all just switch to Canadian Tire money. After all, eBay accepts it (Canadian Tire bought a bank - they're very heavy in the credit business).