Eunice Wonnacott wrote:
...  we beekeepers do not have a copyright on the word "honey" ...

The relevant principle is not based on copyright but is closer to trademark law.  Trademarks are bounded by the principle of "least confusion".  You can use the same word, title, company name, etc as long as there are geographic, industry or other barriers which will act to limit the consumer's confusion.  If you run Wonnacott's Apiary in Florida, you can't use trademark protection to stop me from opening a Wonnacott's Bicycle Shop in Maine.

We have no grounds to complain about "honey" when it is used in the romantic sense because no one is going to mistake my wife for a food product.  We do have grounds to complain when "honey" is used to falsely imply the use of our bee-based food product.

(And to preempt the strict legal interpretation, no, we can't get the word "honey" trademarked.  It is a generic term with a long-standing history of open use.  However, as the Dairy Board and others have shown, it is a legal principle that can be applied in a general fashion.)


Mike Rossander

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