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Best Buy Flexes Legal Muscles Over "Geek"
siliconbits writes "US Electronics retailer Best Buy has been slow but steady in the fight to protect its Geek Squad trademark, but some are wondering whether the 800-lb gorilla of the tech retailing sector is going too far in its war to right some wrongs. The word 'Geek' is a century-old word that used to mean 'fool' or 'crazy,' but has, since the beginning of the 1980s, been associated with fans of technology in general and computers in particular. That hasn't prevented a number of geek-themed companies from being hit by Best Buy's legal team over the last decade, including Geek Housecalls, Rent a Geek, Geek Rescue, Speak with A Geek and, not surprisingly, arch-rival Newegg."
Note: this doesn't mean it's a slam dunk for Best Buy... Newegg's defense is that "geek" is a generic term, and it could well be. The point is just that trademarks only apply to commercial speech.
The title is misleading. Best Buy is defending uses of the word Geek in a context that can be confused with the brand Geek Squad.
Here is a photo of the alleged infringement.
After looking at the logos, it doesn't look like Best Buy has much of a case. I don't see how a reasonable person can confuse the two usages.
Based on anecdotal evidence found on the web - that is no longer true. It seems that the "geeks" have been put out to pasture, and Best Buy has hired "sales" people to replace them. Today, calling the "Geek Squad" means some sales oriented person comes to your house, runs some automated software to clean up viral infestations, and to find obvious hardware and software problems. Based on what he finds, that sales person then offers all sorts of (possibly un-) necessary hardware, software, and/or services. Geek Squad members are graded on the sales they make, rather than the computers they fix.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
> Or like Microsoft trademarking the word "Windows" in reference to their windowed
> application operating system/environment! That would never fly, Right?
Actually, IIRC, they were originally granted a trademark on "Windows" and "Word", but they chose to sue the wrong people (who had mega-$$) and they lost those trademarks --- IMO, they only have a (US) trademark now on "Microsoft Windows" and "Microsoft Word", not on the bare words, no matter what the context.
< checks WP >
No, they only practically lost the bare word Windows --- they bailed out of the litigation before the judge could rule it was invalid.
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That's because the true purpose of a Geek Squad employee is not to fix your technology, but to sell you NEW technology in its place. They are more a squad of technology salesmen (and women I assume) than tech support staff. I've had to tell someone who unwisely chose the Geek Squad to be their technology benefactor, that although GS told them their computer was consumed with malware and thus, the entire system would not start (see also, would not even post), and that the fix would be $50 less than the new system they could sell them which would then be ready to go right now, vs. a week or more later, that the new system they purchased from Best Buy on the "Geek's" recommendation was a waste of money. A quick flick of the power switch on the old machine alerted me to the fact that it did not even attempt to post and that the power light was flickering in a pattern. Quick Google search for power light error codes and what do I find? PSU is bad. $20 later, the machine is booted, I'm scanning away on the drive and finding absolutely nothing. Morale of the story is, they are salesmen and nothing more. They MAY be able to help you with something, but most of the time that help is going to lead to some additional sale.