Boycott Specialized Bikes

[phil_rad]

I put in my two cents worth also. I think Specialized SUCKS!!! 

Hang in there Eric!

[DaveC]

I received the same generic response to my email.  I'm not a patent law expert, but the grounds for this do seem rather specious.

[protoceratops]

Yes, the same generic response for me too...I googled "Epic" and got a predictable avalanche of IMBA rides, motorsports accessory manufacturers, a resort hotel in Miam, and a bunch more.  So I replied that there seems to be a lot of encroachment on those "assets" and that, since no hard feelings against Eric and all, I would be looking forward to seeing all of the forthcoming litigation against those other folks.  Or name changes, of course. 

Trolls all. 

Eric, how about "Eric Designs, formerly Epic Designs"   The whole thing, with a nice note to Specialized pointing out that it will take a while for your far-reaching customer base to adjust to the new name.  So you will need to still have the "Epic" in the title for a bit.

$0.02

[bmike-vt]

Maybe do a Prince on it 'the artist formerly known as Epic'

I posted a ton of other bike related Epics in the MTBR thread.

[edited by request...]

[AZTtripper]

Owners of Epic bikes will want to get their orders in with Eric soon so they can have a bikepacking kit that will match names with their bikes.

Sure it's dorky but how cool would you be doing a big trip sporting your Epic bags on your Epic bike.

[phil_rad]

They sent me a generic mail as well. What a bunch of BS. Here it is;

Dear Phillip,

Thank you very much for your feedback. Specialized possesses no hard feelings nor are we trying to harm Epic Designs in Alaska. However, we strive to protect our assets. One asset we consider valuable is our trademark on the Epic branding. We hope you understand our position. Thank you again for contacting us.

[AZTtripper]

Epic [epik] n (poem) epopeya f: (genre) epica f: adj epico

The Spanish choices for designs are: disenar, trazar, planear, idear, diseno, esbozo.

I think Diseno Epico has a nice ring to it if "Specialized" has a problem with it just say no habla ingles.

[Blackhound]

Very disappointed in Specialized.  I own an Epic bike and some Epic Design's kit.  Read somewhere that they have even patented a shade of 'red' not sure if this is the case or mischief making.  Anyway, I will be reluctant to buy any Specilaized stuff again after this.  Cannot see where the conflict would arise.

[bmike-vt]

"The color blue is a registered trademark and tradedress of Park Tool Co.™"

[protoceratops]

This comes to mind.  The only reason it is so funny is because it is only a slight stretch from the usual business practices that Specialized is using...
and Park Tool Blue(TM)...and the folks patenting "discovered" rather than "invented" things like the human genome fraud...


http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29130

[Moondoggy]

I posted this on mtbr http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=585762   The varied reponses are interesting. It`s seriously goofy that Specialized is doing this.

[fat bob]

yeah, people get really funny when you attack their "brand". Most can't see the point and take it as an attack on them. All I want is for anyone from Specialized to do the right thing and admit that Eric is not trying to rip them off in any way and drop it. Eric's shown what a top notch guy he is, and isn't going to waste time or energy on a useless brand.

It's funny, Schwinn used to have market cornered and got so big they lost focus of what they were doing and why.... we all know what happened to them. See you @ Walmart Specialized.

[kbabin]

I looked up the trademark info Specialized had on "epic" and this all I found:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4003:k449dr.13.3

Does anyone understand trademarking(sp) law?  It seems kinda of strange that a company can let other comanies have "epic" in there name but only go after Epic Designs.

Kev

[AZTtripper]

The link said it was expired.

I did a google search of the word epic nothing about bikes even came up on the first page. Found this about 6 pages in http://www.epicchurch.net/ and this http://www.epicburger.com/ was 8 pages in.

This is only 4 pages in http://failblog.org/ I think it is my favorite.

Not sure if there is more to the back story that we are not getting or what. I can't see them going after any of the bigger names like Epic Records say. Or any that predate them obviously, or any body who would have the bucks to fight back for that matter.

Doesn't seem like it is worth it to eric to spend the money on it. From what I got out of his post he is willing to just move on. I think we should respect his decision and let it drop after all he was not the one asking for a boycott.

It seems he has already moved on I don't think we can help him by dragging it out. Even if I do enjoy mocking the big guys.

And you got to admit this is some good shit here http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/diyablo/epic-failure08.jpg

[fat bob]

Eric never said to boycott the big "S". For me it's more of a grass roots movement to get the point accross to big faceless corporations that they exist because of us, not the other way around. Their business practices are IMO what's wrong with this country, and why we are doing down the tubes.... I could go on and on, but you get my point. Eric's a smart guy and a good businessman, he weighed his options and did the right thing for his business (I'm sure he'd rather be out "field testing" equipment, rather than sitting in a court room).

As far as the trademark BS... it's just that. There are plenty of companies, even sporting goods companies with the name Epic in them. What the big (B)S is trying to do is claim that Eric was riding the coat tails of "Epic" as in their trademarked bicycle name brand in order to promote his bicycle gear. It's six degrees of seperation at best, and truthfully if it did ever get to court there really is no evidence that Eric has violated any trademark agreement. The smart thing to do is to go ahead and settle on his name, whatever it may be, and trademark his ED logo as well as name so that this won't happen moving forward. It will cost him some $, but well worth it

As for me, I'll still continue to tell people to avoid the big S... of course, I also still refuse to purchase Exxon fuel, but that's another story.

[Eric]

hey guys, thanks for the thoughts but let's put this one to rest. Big S and I have an agreement and that's really the end of it. I'm still changing the name, but things have been smoothed over pretty well. Lesson learned.

In general I think the basic problem is that the system lets you TM basically anything, and obvious trouble occurs when generic, common use words are chosen.

So back to bikes and riding them..

[phil_rad]

Eric,
Do you have a new name for Epic Designs yet? What about Eric Designs? :-) You'd only have to change one letter.

[stevage]

Looks like Eric has taken down the blog post, so presumably he worked something out with Spesh. Curious to know whether the name change is still going ahead though.

[bartspedden]

Sent. I hope they understand what they are doing!!! Customers don't cares about their "trademark", but they do care about insane egotistic values.