I always get a kick out of seeing "Friends Asking Friends®" on Kintera's site and materials. A few years ago Kintera essentially claimed ownership on the idea of people asking their friends to donate online to a charity. Kintera has even been to court to protect their "innovation." I suppose it's their right and I think they even won the case. I hope Kintera's clients understand that their donors end up footing the bill for the legal fees, trademarks, etc..
But I'm not going to put anyone asleep by discussing Kintera's fiduciary responsibility to maximize value for its shareholders at the expense of their clients' donors. Yawn. Especially not when the "Friends Asking Friends®" thing is really FUNNY on a couple of levels.
Level 1. The trademark symbol. To me this indicates that Kintera thinks that Friends Asking Friends® is innovative. It's not. It's like typing Cotton Gin® in order to protect Eli Whitney's innovation. In fact, i'm going to get in touch with the Whitney family and suggest that they call every museum and publisher of history books and demand that they add the little r-circle thing next to the words "Cotton Gin." Oops, sorry I meant Cotton Gin®. Don't want to get sued.
Level 2. Here's a list of other innovations that Kintera or anyone else can trademark.
- Friends Asking Friends To Go Out After Work®
- Friends Going on Ill-Advised Dates When They Should Have Stayed Just Friends®
- Friends Going to the Movies®
- Friends Sending Each Other Emails®
- Friends Catching a Ballgame Together®
- etc...
The list is practically endless. Kintera, or anyone else for that matter, could own every aspect of friendship if they wanted to.
Ok, I won't beat a dead horse. But seriously, I think its ok to put the ® away. It's not innovative. The concept certainly isn't. Unless that wasn't really my mother 30 years ago and she didn't really sell magazines for my school at her job. Maybe my mother should use the ®!
Moms Asking Co-workers To Buy Magazines So Their Kids Don't Look Like Idiots At School®
The concept isn't that innovative and the software isn't either. Friends Forwarding a donation page to someone else in an email. Not innovative. So it's probably ok to put the ® away. Or you could just continue to use it. It's funny.
