Here’s a quote from one of the best books I’ve read recently, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
We went on to discuss the definition of intelligence and he asked me if he could write down my formula in his moleskine notebook: “It is not a sacred gift, it is a primate’s only weapon.”
That is not a capital-M Moleskine product placement. I suppose in France the term moleskine has been, and is still more commonly used as meaning a certain sort of generic notebook, though I suppose that may change if Moleskine’s trademark policy is aggressively policed! From the company website:
The trademark MOLESKINE® is more and more frequently used on the net in various ways. We are pleased and proud of this because this is the indication of the interest and passion that our trademark can create. However, people using this trademark must be aware of the fact that MOLESKINE ® is a trademark registered by Moleskine S.r.l. and that it cannot be used without following some precise rules.
MOLESKINE ® is a trademark registered worldwide by Moleskine S.r.l., located in Milan, Viale Stelvio No. 66, 20159 – Italy.
We would be happy to allow free use of the same to all those people who find in the name Moleskine a deep connection with their way of being and acting. However Moleskine’s story and characteristics, together with the tradition which has been accompanying it from many years, require a very careful evaluation of every single situation.
Through its trademark, Moleskine wants to guarantee the quality which distinguishes its products and the coherence with its values and philosophy. For this reason, we ask all those people who want to use the name and/or the trademark Moleskine in the net to send us their request. Each request will be valued carefully by us and will receive a reply.
Sound a bit heavy ! But given what they’ve done with the brand, I can’t say it’s the most outrageous example of protecting a trademark that I’ve seen…
Lol. Companies who think that some registration process gives them the ability or even the right to police how people use language are stupid.
“MOLESKINE ® is a trademark registered by Moleskine S.r.l. and that it cannot be used without following some precise rules.” This is unenforceable. They have the right (under US law, at least) to prevent unauthorized commercial use—you can’t sell your own product and call it Moleskine—but they have no power to police other uses. This heavy-handed statement is basically a way of protecting the brand. A company that doesn’t make a continuing effort to assert its trademark rights may lose them.
Copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property conventions are easily researched on the Net,just takes a bit of patience to drill till you find specific questions answered.
Let’s take the brand “Windows.” It is a common word. Microsoft cannot hope to protect its brand form being used to describe glass building products.
Barbery’s book was published in 2006, after the commercial brand Moleskine had been established. Which brings up an interesting research project that may have already been attempted: What is the earliest known (or published or acknowledged) use of the term “moleskine” to describe a notebook?
david boise ID
*Grumble* the moleskine word has been used for at least 100 years by the French to describe a notebook similar to the Moleskine brand notebook. The artists mentioned in their very own leaflet were around for years before the MOleskine brand was created… I love moleskine notebooks and make my own leather covered hedgehog/moleskin notebooks and I’m constantly aggravated by companies that use age old words in their name and then try and enforce trademarks on them.