Really Backcountry.com??

[ill-advised strategy]

Not sure if I understand. Can I see this as a chart please?

[toast2266]

Truth be told, that is actually more clear. I can see why those corporate folks like charts so much.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Well that is certainly better than the Photochop I just spent 3 minutes on...
Attachment 300519

Disclaimer: I have never purchased anything from Backcunty.com

There's supposed to be 5 black ones and 1 white one. God, don't you know anything about the internet?

[TG]

the only way backcunty will feel it is if gleich starts to raise awareness

[kidwoo]

So flylow and black diamond are making this line of shit that backcountry feels like they need to protect and sue over.....


Yeah fuck those guys too.

[shroom]

devils advocate, life in America ... fucking reality ?

how old are you?

[stuckathuntermtn]

So flylow and black diamond are making this line of shit that backcountry feels like they need to protect and sue over.....


Yeah fuck those guys too.

Hm. Kinda really want a Quantum in Blue/Yellow XL
I'll take it if someone just HAS to get rid of theirs. Don't need the powder skirt.

[2FUNKY]

how old are you?

It’s just his smug canuck schtick. Does make him look infantile.

[idahospud]

the only way backcunty will feel it is if gleich starts to raise awareness

Is Gleich a brand of powder skirt?

[SkiLyft]

Heads up!!

Looks like other peeps are boycotting too!!


https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/groups/538528110277900


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[idahospud]

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?q...flNh6XwrNCYRTg

This might be incomplete because it's only registered trademarks, but holy hell.

[TBS]

Just thinking out loud...
BC's return policy is here https://www.backcountry.com/sc/returnguarantee

What if, hypothetically, people started buying stuff only to return it a week later for a refund?
If done by enough peeps, this would raise hell with inventory control and could force the company to increase its returns/allowance reserves. Not to mention that if you "buy" expensive shit, they pay the freight to you as well as freight back.

Thoughts?

[Harry]

I am turning this around.

I am going buy a set of Marquette Backcountry Skis, the dude who is being sued. These things look fun as hell. Fuck backcountry dot com.

https://www.snapperhead-inventions.com






Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[idahospud]

I am turning this around.

I am going buy a set of Marquette Backcountry Skis, the dude who is being sued. These things look fun as hell. Fuck backcountry dot com.

https://www.snapperhead-inventions.com






Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Hell, I'll get a pair and we can poach the YC golf course.

[toast2266]

I am turning this around.

I am going buy a set of Marquette Backcountry Skis, the dude who is being sued. These things look fun as hell. Fuck backcountry dot com.

https://www.snapperhead-inventions.com

Followed the link. The skis look fine, but I got distracted by the pair of jug smugglers.

[dunfree]

Are you kidding me? Some nit wit is going to give up their $750.00 "sponsorship" because of some corporate "injustice". Some dude on the corporate handout is supposed to care about something? Anything?

I'm sure there's an abused albino meerkat in tanzania that needs their help; and managuan monosexuals that need ski lessons, and people flying 787s every week need to understand their role in climate change!

[happytimefunbox]

I am turning this around.

I am going buy a set of Marquette Backcountry Skis, the dude who is being sued. These things look fun as hell. Fuck backcountry dot com.

https://www.snapperhead-inventions.com






Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Yes

Hell, I'll get a pair and we can poach the YC golf course.

YASSSSSSSSS!

[happytimefunbox]

This whole deal really grinds my gears. The podcast for Marquette skis guy is awesome. Mofo is gonna takit to em! Those bc skis look like a 1000% more funnerer option than snowshoes. You could easy peasy cut down some skins and go steepndeep.

Mag skioff Rax skis vs. Marquette skis at MAGBAKE UT 2.0? All proceeds to goto the help Marquette fuck backcuntry dot com legal defense fund...

Fucken bcdotdumasses frenchfried and pizza'd at the same time

[SchralphMacchio]

Here is my take. I used to work in brand management for a big company.

• USPTO (patent and trademark office) has previously awarded trademarks for the term "Backcountry" for other goods and services, as early as 2016 to a company trying to make a "Backcountry" bourbon. These marks aren't associated with additional graphics (e.g., doesn't need to accompany a goat or other drawing), markings or ".com" etc. USPTO also gave "Backcountry" trademarks to Arctic Cat, an optics company making binoculars, an essential oils company, and a toy company. Most of these marks are dead (registrations haven't been renewed) but some are still live. So that probably paved the way for Backcountry.com to get their marks approved.
• Backcountry.com was awarded marks in a huge variety of goods and services, including avalanche probes. That sets up a direct conflict with Backcountry Access company, since BCA has been marketing avalanche probes under their own brand name for several years. Other types of goods and services for which bc.com filed use of said charcter mark: skis, climbing skins, climbing gear (ropes biners bouldering pads etc), ski repair tools, bike repair tools, tailgate pads, water bottles, air mattresses, clothing.
• The above info is publicly available in the USPTO trademark database: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.e...805:ql6668.1.1
• IPLA is the key firm involved in registering all of these marks and actively enforcing them ... but it's impossible to tell who is authorizing IPLA's actions and paying their checks (out of whose division budget/cost center) - a division within backcountry.com or within the parent branding organization TSG Consumer Partners?
• Since it's impossible to tell, I've extended my personal outrage and product ban to all of TSG's brands - which is a TON of stuff including PBR and Sweetwater beer, Duckhorn wine, Stumptown coffee, Meguiars car wash wax, LaVictoria salsa, PlanetFitness and Corepower fitness gyms, etc, the list is super extensive: http://www.tsgconsumer.com/portfolio
  
• This brand strategy - to lose the dot com and rebrand around just "Backcountry", without the goat, and then to actively enforce it, not among competitors like my local Eugene-based business BackcountryGear.com, but among customers and suppliers like guiding group Backcountry Babes or jeans company Backcountry Denim - is pure insanity to me, as someone who used to be paid to approve and execute brand strategy on a nationwide and international level!
• TSG does not have any email contact but their PR firm's email address is TSG-SVC@Sardverb.com
• The email for backcountry.com's PR firm is pr@backcountry.com
• Jonathan Neilsen's email address (CEO of Backcountry.com) is floating around on the internet as well but I won't repost it as it's not publicly posted by them ... but you can find it if you want to direct your outrage in a nice letter.

I decided to send TSG's PR firm and Jonathan Neilsen a love note.

Dear TSG Brand Management Persons,

I can confidently say I've spent nearly $10,000 over the last 10 years purchasing mountain bikes, boots, camping gear, clothing, ski gear, etc. from Backcountry.com and its associated sites, because the websites can show me all of my order history so I tallied it up. I can also confidently say that thanks to the predatory actions against suppliers, service providers, and consumers in the outdoor industry undertaken by IPLA on behalf of Backcountry.com and/or TSG Consumer Partners - you are NO LONGER GETTING MY BUSINESS.

Instead I'll purchase through backcountrygear.com, REI, and other local retailers.

It's absurd that your company would even think to register a trademark for a common term like "backcountry" (without the "dot com" part which was integral to the identity consumers like me used to recognize), and even more absurd to see you authorizing IPLA going after people who actually buy stuff from your platform, or sell stuff through your platform! Did it never occur to you as you authorized IPLA to go after them, that the owners of Backcountry Babes had probably bought skin glue, gloves, goggles and jackets from your website? The persons behind Backcountry Denim probably bought all their sunglasses from Steep and Cheap? This isn’t just going after competitors, you are going after your owns suppliers and customers – it’s borderline insane. Mind you, I actually used to do brand management professionally, for a living, as {info excluded}, and I would not ever have supported a brand plan this ridiculous or outrageous.

What is the loss of my of business worth to your company, another $10k in revenue over the next 10 years, maybe twice that now that I'm married with a kid and have double the gear needs? What is the cost of me sharing this story with all of my gearhead friends? I have hundreds of them on Facebook, tetongravity.com, and mtbr.com. I’ll make sure to remind everyone I know about this going into the holiday shopping season. Can you estimate that cost and put a net present value on it? My account name on Backcountry.com is “ {info excluded}” if you wish to authenticate my business history with you.

Also, since I am unable to determine whether the Backcountry.com division in and of themselves authorized and funded such actions through IPLA law firm, versus the parent organization TSG Consumer Partners, I'm just going to extend my outrage to all brands associated with TSG Consumer Partners. It's reasonably likely to me that TSG's brand management team directly authorized this branding and brand protection strategy, and paid for IPLA to wage war on small businesses across the country. The other brands in the portfolio I used to purchase includes Stumptown coffee, Duckhorn wine, PBR beer, Sweetwater beer, and LaVictoria salsas and beans.

Thanks guys, it's been fun, you’ve been good to me, but you also have competing brands and products I can work with, who don’t prey on small businesses and consumers elsewhere in the value chain. I’m probably out for good, unless you can withdraw or “make dead” the “Backcountry” trademark registrations you have with USPTO. I’m talking about the standard character mark registrations that IPLA is currently enforcing on your behalf (the ones that don’t have a goat design associated with the mark):
• 88195749
• 88142992
• 87865407
• 87776289
• 87046862

Cheers and best wishes as you move forward from this episode.

[snowaddict91]

Here is my take. I used to work in brand management for a big company.

• USPTO (patent and trademark office) has previously awarded trademarks for the term "Backcountry" for other goods and services, as early as 2016 to a company trying to make a "Backcountry" bourbon. These marks aren't associated with additional graphics (e.g., doesn't need to accompany a goat or other drawing), markings or ".com" etc. USPTO also gave "Backcountry" trademarks to Arctic Cat, an optics company making binoculars, an essential oils company, and a toy company. Most of these marks are dead (registrations haven't been renewed) but some are still live. So that probably paved the way for Backcountry.com to get their marks approved.
• Backcountry.com was awarded marks in a huge variety of goods and services, including avalanche probes. That sets up a direct conflict with Backcountry Access company, since BCA has been marketing avalanche probes under their own brand name for several years. Other types of goods and services for which bc.com filed use of said charcter mark: skis, climbing skins, climbing gear (ropes biners bouldering pads etc), ski repair tools, bike repair tools, tailgate pads, water bottles, air mattresses, clothing.
• The above info is publicly available in the USPTO trademark database: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.e...805:ql6668.1.1
• IPLA is the key firm involved in registering all of these marks and actively enforcing them ... but it's impossible to tell who is authorizing IPLA's actions and paying their checks (out of whose division budget/cost center) - a division within backcountry.com or within the parent branding organization TSG Consumer Partners?
• Since it's impossible to tell, I've extended my personal outrage and product ban to all of TSG's brands - which is a TON of stuff including PBR and Sweetwater beer, Duckhorn wine, Stumptown coffee, Meguiars car wash wax, LaVictoria salsa, PlanetFitness and Corepower fitness gyms, etc, the list is super extensive: http://www.tsgconsumer.com/portfolio
  
• This brand strategy - to lose the dot com and rebrand around just "Backcountry", without the goat, and then to actively enforce it, not among competitors like my local Eugene-based business BackcountryGear.com, but among customers and suppliers like guiding group Backcountry Babes or jeans company Backcountry Denim - is pure insanity to me, as someone who used to be paid to approve and execute brand strategy on a nationwide and international level!
• TSG does not have any email contact but their PR firm's email address is TSG-SVC@Sardverb.com
• The email for backcountry.com's PR firm is pr@backcountry.com
• Jonathan Neilsen's email address (CEO of Backcountry.com) is floating around on the internet as well but I won't repost it as it's not publicly posted by them ... but you can find it if you want to direct your outrage in a nice letter.

I decided to send TSG's PR firm and Jonathan Neilsen a love note.

Well done. I guess I can try to boycott PBR. But really, right when we finally get "real" PBR in Utah? Fuck you TSG.

[stuckathuntermtn]

There's an entire brand called Backcountry Access.

Anyway, good luck explaining to a judge how that word is somehow novel.

[ill-advised strategy]

La Victoria’s out!???!!?

God dammit, say it ain’t so!!

[Ted Striker]

^^^ that was the one that got me too.

[SchralphMacchio]

Thank god the beans we buy in caseloads from Costco are Rosarita brand!

[Ted Striker]

Here is my take...

Well written, and thought out.

I get that trademarks must be defended, but this seems to be beyond any reasonable expectation. And way too after the fact.

There's a local store that is probably facing one of their threats, and when I think about what the owner has done for this community vs TSGordon Gekko, saying goodbye to Backcountry will be easy. (and I've been buying stuff from them since the 00s - well over 10k)