Boston Blog

I'm no trademark and patent expert but when I came across this in wikipedia it struck home at how stupid it can get:

In 2002, Boston Pizza commenced a lawsuit against Boston Market in the Federal Court of Canada over the trademark use of the word "Boston" in Canada. In its defence, Boston Market alleged that Boston Pizza's trademarks were invalid because it described a style of pizza from a specific area. The dispute continued after Boston Market ceased operations in Canada in 2004. The parties settled the dispute in 2008 under an agreement that Boston Market would not use the words "Boston" or "Boston Market" in Canada for five years for restaurants or any food or drink products (other than pre-packaged food products, but not including pizza and lasagna). Boston Market also agreed that it will not challenge Boston Pizza's use in Canada of any trademark that uses the words "Boston" or "Boston Pizza" (with certain exceptions).

So a company can "own" a name on Canadian soil that's not even Canadian?

Dumb.

Maybe there should be an option whereby we can take Boston Pizza's rights for being neither Bostonian or making what I think to be pizza. So there. Pft.

Boston belongs to no one or anything. No word should "belong" to any entity.  

Unrelated, should cities patent their names? Imagine if Rome or Athens filed suits across the continent against towns that use their names.