FranklinCovey Sending A Trademark C&D Over '7 Habits' Appears To Violate A Few Of The '7 Habits'

from the seven-habits-of-highly-effective-legal-fluffery dept

Wed, Jan 26th 2011 7:16am — Mike Masnick

jonakajon alerts us to the news that the folks over at FranklinCovey, publishers of the ridiculously popular "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," written by Stephen Covey, have sent a cease and desist letter to the folks behind the online webcomic Schlock Mercenary, because the comic has -- for years, apparently -- had a running parody called "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates." The guy behind the comic is now going back and retroactively rewriting his comic-world history, and pretending that the parody book is now "The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries." Of course, you would think that Schlock Mercenary would have a strong parody defense, but it's a pain to fight off big corporate lawyers.

That said, if you look at the actual Seven Habits, it looks like this action by FranklinCovey violates a few of them along the way (suggesting, perhaps that FranklinCovey isn't as "effective" as it would like you to believe). For example, habit four is "think win-win." That's sort of the opposite of sending a C&D. A win-win would have been to contact the comic author and talk to him and figure out an effective solution that worked for both parties, that didn't involve legal threats and the risk of having to pay lots of money for creating a simple parody. Habit five is to "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood." And yet, FranklinCovey's lawyers did not appear to do this at all. They did not realize this is a webcomic, and not competitive. There is simply no likelihood of confusion here at all. None. And then there's the whole parody thing. Perhaps it's time to cross those habits off the list?

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Filed Under: 7 habits, bullying, schlock mercenary, stephen covey, trademark
Companies: franklincovey

34 Comments

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Pickle Monger (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 6:25am

Always a good tactic:
Do as I say and not as I do.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:26am
  
  Re: Always a good tactic:
  was going to say that
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  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 9:05am
    
    Re: Re: Always a good tactic:
    They just fell prey to the Seven Habits of Highly Defective IP Lawyers.
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johnjac (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 6:47am

I already know the response
They Lawyers will say "But we HAVE TO, to protect the trademark"

Funny how lawyers recommend that more of their services are required. No conflict of interest there.
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- :Lobo Santo (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:21am
  
  Re: I already know the response
  A law who advertises his services in any way pretty much has already established his conflict of interest...
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  - :Lobo Santo (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:23am
    
    Re: Re: I already know the response
    grrk, "lawyer" that should be...
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    - Hephaestus (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:14am
      
      Re: Re: Re: I already know the response
      grrk, "liar" that should be...
      
      There fixed that for you.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:11am

The Two Habits of Highly Defective People
1) Write a self help book and sell it to idiots.

2) Sue the hell out of anyone who mentions it and doesn't pay you.
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Bas Grasmayer (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:36am

Shame. I liked to book... Wish I could say the same for the publisher.
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- Bas Grasmayer (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:37am
  
  Re:
  *to = the
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- lordmorgul, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:29am
  
  Re:
  Agreed, I liked the book and how it presents and fully develops each of the major points. The content is good. Unfortunately, I think Covey is not really as involved in running the operation and his brand as he should be... this is way out of hand and embarrassing.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:39am

Wow...
2/7 of the comments of this thread are about correcting initial errors made in their original comments. How highly effective....

;)
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- Berenerd (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:49am
  
  Re: Wow...
  its a win/win senerio...
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Rachel @ Last Res0rt, 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:39am

He seems to be taking it in stride, though.
From the creator's blog:

In truth, I'm grateful for the excuse to dive into the archives and change this stuff. The original joke was kind of lazy, and didn't lend itself well (read: "legally") to merchandising. My edits are done now, and any leftover septangles in nun-hats are the result of a cached image somewhere.

Yes, FC is being a dick, but it sounds like they opened up another merchandising avenue for him -- which is ultimately worth a lot more to him than defending his "lazy joke" might be. Not a defense for their behavior, but worth a thought.
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- Nick Coghlan (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:48am
  
  Re: He seems to be taking it in stride, though.
  Yeah, I posted in the comments on Blogunder Schlock to say that I actually liked the new name (The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries) better than the old one. Plenty of fun snark over in the blog comments about the fact it took FC more than eight and a half years to notice :)
  
  I've actually been a Schlock fan for ages (I have copies of all the books published so far, including the nice slip case for the first five) and have submitted it several times to TD as a great example of someone doing an extraordinary job of connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy.
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  - Nick Coghlan (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 7:57am
    
    Re: Re: He seems to be taking it in stride, though.
    Tayler also updated the in-universe origin story to reflect the original book, the comedy sketch that parodied it, and to take a couple of pot shots at Franklin Covey (aka Covetous Franklinstein) along the way:
    http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-11-21
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    - Jay (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:02am
      
      Re: Re: Re: He seems to be taking it in stride, though.
      It would be interesting to see a look into the webcomic world. If you have heard of Clevinger, the Giant (Burlew) or Shlesinger, you might find
      new ideas on how to make money on the web.
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      - Nick Coghlan (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:25am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: He seems to be taking it in stride, though.
        I read OotS as well (and have a couple of the books), although updates are rather sporadic these days due to GitP's ongoing health problems.
        
        One of my favourites is actually Irregular Webcomic, and that's an example of a pure hobbyist web comic where the guy doing it isn't even *trying* to monetise it, but is up to 2922 strips (8 years) without missing a single day.
        
        XKCD has certainly been mentioned a few times around here as an example of a web comic creator that has successfully monetised free content, but it would definitely be interesting to see more an that front. That's one of the reasons I keep submitting Schlock as a possible case study - I'd really like to see the results of Mike interviewing Howard Tayler.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:01am

On an unrelated not, the show comments as Threaded button does not work any more :(
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- doughless (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 10:16am
  
  Re:
  Fortunately, it still works when you're signed in. I'm sure they'll have it fixed soon.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 10:58am
  
  Re:
  On an unrelated not, the show comments as Threaded button does not work any more :(
  
  We broke something... working on fixing.
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Not an electronic Rodent, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:06am

Ms. S again?
I wonder how effective being seen as bullying, uptight and slow-to-catch-on sue-merchants will prove to be as a marketing tactic for FC?

I hadn't heard of either before, now I've heard of a comic I might read and will probably associate with the original name because of how I came to it, a publishing company that I will probably associate with stupidity and pettyness and a book that I'll probably continue to avoid.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 9:54am
  
  Re: Ms. S again?
  Yeah, I know about FranklinCovey. They had retail stores which provided time management tools-- planners, calendars, etc.
  
  I also know that Darl McBride was working at FranklinCovey from a time before he joining SCO as it's CEO...
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:20am

Is it just me or did TechDirt just become hostile towards NoScript users (or perhaps, just people that disable JavaScript)?

I can't seem to us the "reply to this" function properly and can't switch between Threaded view and Flattened view. It didn't bother me much that I couldn't use the Funny/Insightful buttons, but this one is really annoying.

Disabling NoScript fixes this, obviously, but I am NOT going to disable NoScript. Fix please? I promise I'll be good ;)
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- btrussell (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:49am
  
  Re:
  I can now reply, but can't switch view.
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- PRMan, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:53am
  
  Re:
  But isn't that the beauty of NoScript? Just turn it on for techdirt.com only.
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  - PRMan, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:53am
    
    Re: Re:
    Hey, replies work now. Thanks.
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  - btrussell (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 9:13am
    
    Re: Re:
    But the rest still don't and now the "funny" "insightful" and "report" buttons are missing.
    Does No-Script work for IE now?
    
    Also has a new/different font.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 10:59am
  
  Re:
  Is it just me or did TechDirt just become hostile towards NoScript users (or perhaps, just people that disable JavaScript)?
  
  No, we broke something... fixing.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:28am

For accuracy,

1. There is nothing in the linked article talking about whether or not there were any prior communications between the two parties. The article here assumes there were not, but there is no support for the assumption.

2. Likelihood of confusion is not relevant to a claim of trademark dilution, though without the letter in hand there is no way of knowing if this was one of the bases for the claim stated in the letter.

In sum, some important data is missing at this point in time.
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Eugene (profile), 26 Jan 2011 @ 10:48am

No! That's my second favorite webcomic, next to Sluggy Freelance!

Though ironically, this means they ARE following the in-universe version of their book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates". Like number 13: "Do unto others." or number 16: "Don't be afraid to be the first to resort to violence"

And probably the most apt, number 21: "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Take his fish away and tell him he's lucky just to be alive, and he'll figure out how to catch another one for you to take tomorrow."
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El Santo, 26 Jan 2011 @ 12:57pm

Oh, man...
Does that mean Scott Adams is gonna have to change the title of his Dilbert books, too? (Maybe he already has. I seem to call a "Seven Habits of Highly Defective People," but all I could find was "Seven Years of Highly Defective People.")

http://www.amazon.com/Dilbert-Seven-Highly-Defective-People/dp/0836236688/ref=sr_1_1?ie =UTF8&qid=1296075355&sr=8-1
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- Mr Big Content, 26 Jan 2011 @ 8:33pm
  
  Re: Oh, man...
  No, Scott Adams is a legitimate artist, not an Internet. There�s nothing wrong with what he�s doing�it�s not in the same class as these Internets.
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El Santo, 26 Jan 2011 @ 12:57pm

Oh, man...
Does that mean Scott Adams is gonna have to change the title of his Dilbert books, too? (Maybe he already has. I seem to call a "Seven Habits of Highly Defective People," but all I could find was "Seven Years of Highly Defective People.")

http://www.amazon.com/Dilbert-Seven-Highly-Defective-People/dp/0836236688/ref=sr_1_1?ie =UTF8&qid=1296075355&sr=8-1
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