Can we agree on this: the fairness and accuracy of the
following analogy?
When it comes to the qualities of materials, craftsmanship
and authenticity, the products sold under the brand name Navajo by the
upscale-ish retailer Urban Outfitters compare with those made and sold by
actual members of the Navajo tribe as Urban Outfitters itself compares to John’s Bargain
Store.
I make this comparison because settlement talks between the
tribe and the styled-rag sellers have collapsed and the Navajos' suit to stop
Urban Outfitters from using the tribe’s name as a brand is going back before a
judge.
The rest should be easy to figure. Should
be.
Urban Outfitters says, according to a “wire report” in my
home newspaper, The Albuquerque Journal, that “’Navaho’ is a generic term for a
style or design,” and that the tribe’s trademark claims should be nullified.
I will spare you the newfound New Mexico zealot’s reaction
to the UO proposition that visual patterns and crafts techniques specific to
the Navajo tribe can legally be appropriated and reproduced, or approximated and
slapped together in some off-shore sweat shop, and then be sold with a “Navajo”
label to any misguided consumer who is willing to find it Navajo-ish enough.
I will simply propose, if in the end, the Navajos and the fashion peddlers can’t find a licensing price, and the judge
actually finds for UO, that someone buy up some Bargain Stores and reopen them
as Urban Outfitters- (and to show you what an upright and honest merchant I
would be) – Like.
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