This paragraph in a list of recent planning applications may seem innocuous enough but it landed the editor in hot water with the police – the Portakabin Police, that is.
Andy Rush, editor of the Loughborough Echo received a letter – his second in 20 years – from one of Portakabin’s army of media-watchers.
“I am obliged to point out that Portakabin is a registered trademark…suggest you use in future the generic terms portable building, temporary building or simply cabin,” it states.
Andy says he tells all his reporters to be aware of the pitfall when writing stories, but admits he failed to spot it when cutting and pasting the latest planning list.
- Have you ever been visited by the Portakabin Police? Add your experiences in the comments below.
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I, too, was stunned to receive a couple of letters from the Portakabin Police during my 21 years as an editor, but was able to smugly prove that I was correct in my use of the trademark. I did, however, remind my staff fairly regularly to watch out for words such as `Hoover’ (or is it Dyson now?) and Cenotaph
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Slightly amused that the automatic ad generated by this story is for a firm called UK Cabins. So Portakabin has rather shot itself in the foot and highlighted what is presumabably a rival firm.
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He should have told Portakabin to get lost. If anybody is at fault, it is the council’s planning dept or the applicant. The paper ran a planning notice word-for-word as submitted with the council. It is not appropriate for the editor to start tinkering with the wording on the whim of a private company.
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