Mediaboss Marketing

In late 1994, Newsweek published an article titled "The Age of Cybercash" that informed readers: "Your virtual wallet may soon be here."

By the end of 2007, the term "virtual wallet" had appeared more than 700 times in the English press, including in American Banker, the Economist, the New York Times and Consumer Reports.

Nevertheless, the following year, PNC Financial Services Group launched a "Virtual Wallet" product. It sought trademark protection, asking to own the commercial rights to two consecutive words that had been pushed together by the press and industry more than a decade earlier.

And it succeeded - at least at convincing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The English language hasn't been nearly so cooperative, as reporters, technologists and bankers alike continue to employ "virtual wallet" as a generic description for a broad class of digital goods.

Not that that has stopped PNC from trying, as The Chronicle learned earlier this month. The company's law firm sent a reporter here a note asking the publication to "refrain from misuse of our client's VIRTUAL WALLET trademark."

To which I say: virtual wallet, virtual wallet, virtual wallet, virtual wallet.

My objections here are twofold. First, law firms have no business telling publications protected by the First Amendment how to use language, so long as we're not writing lies or libeling anyone.

But more broadly, I resent companies taking a Homestead Act approach to the English language, claiming a piece as their own just because they work it a little while.

My take on trademarks is roughly analogous to my perspective on patents: If you've created something genuinely original, you might have some claim of ownership. The least companies can do is squish together some pleasant-sounding syllables - I'm looking at you, Celexa.

But PNC's Virtual Wallet, a hybrid savings and checkings account, takes a withdrawal from the public commons without making a deposit. And we simply shouldn't let companies cherry-pick our lexicon for their own commercial gain.

Originally posted here:
Companies want us to give them our word