Originally published at: Medieval Times Dinner Theater's new union-busting tactic? Claiming "trademark infringement" | Boing Boing
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Maybe the workers could call themselves, “The Peasants’ Revolt Union”?
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Well, Wat Tyler’s story didn’t exactly end well.
“Black Death Aftermath Union” sounds bad, but historically speaking has a better meaning.
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Good point 
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“There were no unions in medieval times, hence there are no unions at Medieval Times.” *
Call it a guild. Have little events. Put on mystery plays.
[* not an actual quote]
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I don’t think this suit can succeed. IIRC, trademark infringement only works if the two parties are in the same general field of business, so consumers might buy from one business thinking it’s connected with the other. But being in the dinner theater business is not the same as being in the union “business”.
But I suppose just the threat of a suit can intimidate the union if they don’t have enough money to defend themselves against the company.
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Yeah, they’ve got no leg to stand on - the union isn’t a business, much less a competing business; this is entirely about the legal costs as a union-busting tactic.
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Tell that to the music groups System 7, Disneyland After Dark, Manitoba, and The Postal Service…
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Forget the Trump Papers drama, this is exactly the sort of case the present Supreme Court was bought to rule on. I suspect any novel idea for preventing unionization will be rushed to the SC so it can get the official imprimatur and be available to all employers.
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I don’t know about the second two cases you mentioned but I’m pretty sure in the first two, Apple and Disney would have argued they are in the music business. They are so huge, that good lawyers can probably show they are in a thousand different businesses.
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I guess it’s an anachronism (& I just finished a glass of wine) but how about “The Levellers”?
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When Adam delved and Eve span who was then a Texas-domiciled holding company and subsidiary of Marena Intracorp B.V.?
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Apple Computers had a huge legal thing with Apple Corp, the Beatles’ music company, because Apple Computers had justified their name by renouncing involvement with music until of coure they needed to get involved.
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Pssst! Just join the Wobblies! They’re bigger and they’ll fight for you!
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However, remember that Medieval Times is based on the Spanish Middle Ages, not on England. Maybe María Pacheco is a better inspiration. She did actually survive the failed peasants revolt she led, even if she died young in exile afterwards.
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That could cause some confusion with the British band of the same name, who’ve been around since 1988, and who took their name from the early British political movement.
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… probably extra hairy because Jobs and Wozniak admitted they were Beatles fans who named their company after the other one on purpose
such a dumb kid thing to do, they were so young
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Unique? Really? According to The RenList, there’s at least 46 Renaissance Faires being held across the US alone just in October. Our local faire, Bristol Renaissance Faire, was founded in 1972, albeit under a different name, and so predates Medieval Times by at least a decade. That’s not even considering that décor, script, etc. as actual historical examples. I know the purpose of this isn’t to win a lawsuit, but just to drain the reserves of the union, but that claim is beyond stupid.
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There’s a call from the SCA on line 2.
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