The Big Apple has a new logo, and Apple says: Drop dead.

At issue is the emblem for New York City’s GreeNYC campaign, which has started to appear around the city on bus shelters, hybrid gasoline-electric taxicabs and even Whole Foods shopping bags.

The GreeNYC logo shows a stylized apple with a stalk and a leaf. It bears a resemblance to Apple’s famous logo — a resemblance Apple says infringes on its trademark. Read more…

A company’s brand is their lively hood. I don’t blame any company for vigorously defending their brand, Apple especially. Apple has gotten to that point in brand development where they don’t even need to write out their name on ads anymore, they just put the icon in the corner and everyone knows who it is. Target does the same thing. So since a little Apple icon is their whole identity, if anyone else out there uses a stylized Apple they’re going to be scrutinized for possibly diluting Apple’s brand.

When you register a trademark, you have to specify in which class or industry you will be using it to conduct business. You’d specify something like computers, food & beverage, telecommunications, etc. If someone uses a similar name or logo in a class where your trademark isn’t registered, you have a great case. If they aren’t in your industry or class, it’s a lot more difficult to prove dilution. NYC doesn’t make computers, and Apple doesn’t make cities. Right? Case closed?

Unfortunately, not in this case. NYC will probably get to use their Apple, it’s really not that similar. But if they let one Apple through without saying anything, they have to let all of them through. They need to get it down on paper why this one is isn’t an issue, just to ensure no precedent is set that will work against them in a more legitimate claim in the future.

So last week Deutsche Telekom, owners of the global T-Mobile brand, sent Engadget a late birthday present: a hand-delivered letter direct from their German legal department requesting the prompt discontinuation of the use of the color magenta on Engadget Mobile. Yep, seriously. Read more…

T-Mobile, old buddy. Listen, you gotta pick your fights. UPS Brown? I would sue for UPS Brown. Marlboro Red? Oh, Absolutely. Sue for Marlboro Red. Owens Corning Pink? (Think fiberglass insulation, only one company can make it pink.) Yeah, Owens Corning Pink is definitely worth it. But T-Mobile Magenta? Is T-Mobile Magenta really worth a lawsuit? Even if we were to falsely assume that there are only 256 colors in the world, I would just let T-Mobile Magenta go. Does anybody like Magenta? Suing for a color? Brilliant. Suing for Magenta? Come on… Maybe if it were Magenta’s evil twin sister, Rhodamine Red, this would be a different story.

I kid around but actually T-Mobile’s sometimes excessive use of Magenta is just as widely recognizable as UPS’s sometimes excessive use of the color brown. Like UPS’s use of Brown, it stands out in their industry and they have a right to protect that. At this point, T-Mobile’s unique image would ultimately become diluted and tarnished if others not associated with T-Mobile were allowed to actively use Magenta.

The complaint against Engadget is plausible. It would be impossible to get away with saying that the color Magenta isn’t widely recognized as an integral part of T-Mobile’s brand. Trademarking a color may seem silly, but it’s certainly a protection under trademark law. I’ll mention UPS Brown once again. It’s trademarked. A candy bar company can use UPS Brown all they want, but if FedEx decided to start painting their trucks UPS Brown, they’d be in a heap of trouble.

(Note: While I’m on the UPS topic, look back on my furious posting about the UPS logo “modernization.”)

The argument in many places across the web is that EngadgeT-Mobile doesn’t create confusion or dilution because EngadgeT-Mobile doesn’t sell wireless phones, devices, or wireless service. It’s really not that simple. The site is a powerful commentator on the wireless industry that profits off consumers in that industry, so by using the elements (colors) of T-Mobile it could be argued that they are showing their website is endorsed by T-Mobile.

It’s easy to have sympathy for the little guy when they are faced with a large corporation, a corporation which I’m sure countless people hate because of billing errors, late fees, and spotty service. Set aside your differences with T-Mobile, and let’s review just what Engadget really is. This is not a little blog with only a couple dozen followers, it’s one of the top 2 or 3 tech blogs out there. The writers on the site make a living off of it, this isn’t their hobby. They make a profit off of advertising dollars. Now they’re specifically profiting in the cell phone industry, and that’s why T-Mobile is definitely not out of line asking them to stop using the color.

By the way, from the T-Mobile website:

T-MOBILE, the T-MOBILE logo, T-ZONES, the T-ZONES design, the HOTSPOT design, T-MOBILE MDA, T-MOBILE SDA, T-MOBILEWEB, the WORLDCLASS logo, the “digits” design, the T-MOBILE acoustic logo, and the color magenta are registered and/or unregistered trademarks of Deutsche Telekom AG in the US and/or other countries.

By the way, I totally own the hex color #00467D. So don’t use it.

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - Plain Dealer Reporter -
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary.

Elections workers will look for evidence that voters lied when they signed affidavits pledging allegiance to their new party. And at least one board member, Sandy McNair, a Democrat, wants the county prosecutor to review the findings.

Are we living in a place where once you’ve picked a political party you’d better stick with it or fear being investigated/prosecuted?

Let’s examine the facts as we know them. There was a primary in Ohio. There were people who voted in that primary. There were people who switched parties to vote in that primary and were forced into signing “affidavits of allegiance,” something that I don’t believe is in the realm of freedom. The vote is supposed to be secret, yes?

For the State to come down on people who voted is wrong. I can decide to vote either Democrat or Republican at ANY point, and am not willing to pledge absolute “allegiance” to either. Meaning, I agree and disagree with a variety of the current tenets of both parties at any given moment. So if I switch parties, the Government is going to come along and “determine my allegiance”? The Government is going to tell me what I believe? Thank you, but no thank you, Mr. McCarthy.

The opposing argument might be the question of why should the vote be secret? This isn’t the general election we’re talking about, it’s a primary. Why shouldn’t they be forced to sign something? If you want to participate in a party’s program, you follow their rules. My answer to that would be that the vote should be secret because I don’t need my neighbors to know who I voted for. I have a right to participate without having to think about anything except who I want to vote for. As long as this is a free-for-all program that involves the State, I have the right for my voice to be heard and have the right to have my voice to be as anonymous as it is in the general election.

If parties want to take this process away and hold the elections themselves because they don’t agree with the results - fine. As long as my neighbor can’t go vote, either. Draw a name out of a hat to determine your nominee. If you want to leave one voter out of the process because you don’t like their politics, you’d better leave everyone out.

Prosecution of Americans for committing the act of voting is ludicrous. I hope the story I linked to above outrages all Americans, no matter what party has your “allegiance.”

To make it super easy, I wrote a macro that exports my new release list in iTunes to an HTML table, so all I have to do is paste the HTML table into this blog and I’m ready to go. Pretty geeky, huh? I’ve been having a lot of geek moments lately..

So here’s the music I’ve been listening to lately, you even get to see when I added it to my iTunes library. Lucky you!

After taking all of that in I still just don’t know what really is best for me, my family, my city, my state, my country and even for the rest of the world. When I look at it from a global perspective, I really think Obama would send a great message to the rest of the world. Right now, we’re looked at as more arrogant than the French. Yikes, that’s harsh. Obama would tell the world we really are the open-minded, diverse and progressive nation we claim to be. I think he’d do a well-enough job of inspiring a lot of people right here at home, as well. On the other hand, does he really know what he’s doing? Seems I trust the other guys a little more when it comes to competencies.

With all of our guys over in Iraq, Afghanistan & elsewhere fighting, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with someone who just has charisma and is a great speaker. I think someone with a long record to stand up to and a well thought plan is what we need right now. This is why I really hope it comes down to Clinton vs. McCain. The election will be about the pretty much just the war. Clinton will be the one who has a timeline to pull out (everyone will label her a flip-flopper about 10 million times, you know it will happen) and McCain will be the guy who has stood by the decision all along and wants to finish the job.

It will be an easy decision for everyone, a clear difference. There will be no immigration debates because they don’t really differ on that much. No Global Warming debates because Clinton & McCain have worked together on the stuff. It will be a straight-forward election about the most important thing we have going on right now. If it’s Obama vs McCain it will be inexperience vs experience, but ultimately anti-war vs pro-war. Still not too bad of an election, still a clear difference, it will get ugly but not as bad as last time.

I think part of my uneasiness about Obama and my more openness toward Clinton has to do with the media’s love affair with the guy. They paint him as a saint, comparing his speeches to JFK & MLK, etc. I really hate seeing the media sway how people see candidates because the media happens to like someone better.

As much as I’ve always liked McCain’s moderate voice in Washington, someone who always votes on principle and not on what the party says, I don’t think he can win. I don’t think any Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green party candidate or anyone else can win against Obama. The media is going to paint him as the savior of all our problems, and they’ll show McCain as the greedy old partisan-politician that he really isn’t. Meanwhile, people in his own party will vote against him because he isn’t loyal enough to the party.

I’m honestly personally considering voting for Obama. I do currently like what he could do for us. I never rule anyone out based on what party they’re in or how they stand on a single issue (unless it’s extremely important, of course). But we have a long way to go & there are other people to be thinking about too. I’ve said time and again that I respect McCain, but I think the Clinton years did some good for us and I actually think Hillary has some coherent, reasonable plans on certain issues.

The recent Super Tuesday turnout shows that it’s going to be a big election, and a lot of people are getting involved. My early prediction is that it will be an Obama blowout, he’ll sweep most of the nation. I’m just worried that it won’t be for the right reasons. I hope everyone will ask themselves if he really is what’s best. Please don’t let the media make that decision for us.

The Holidays
They were great. We stayed in Minneapolis so there wasn’t the trouble of holiday travel to deal with. We spent the holiday with Lizzie’s family mostly, great meals and great gift exchanging. Nothing to complain about. I went to North Dakota the weekend before New Years and did some snowmobiling. Without hurting myself. It was fun.

Redesigned the Web Site
It hasn’t seen much of a change since 2003, so I needed to do something different with it. I’m just never very ambitious about advertising myself, I’m better at showing off other people (companies). I made it quick, very simple but I think it’s easy to look at. Not quite the jumbled mess it used to be.

Started a new job
This has been probably the most exciting part of the past few months. Around Thanksgiving I was approached to go in and talk about a Graphic Designer & Web Designer job at a company just a few blocks away from home. Turned out the position was a nice step up for me, so after two interviews and a lot of agonizing I decided to move on. I spent three solid years at the last place, it was hard to leave but after spending just a couple weeks now at the new job I know it was the best choice for me professionally. It’s also done a number on reducing my stress level too, I’ve reduced my 1hour commute by about 98%. Heck, I can walk to work now if my car dies on me. Speaking of which, it’s -13 degrees out today, and my fuel lines are all froze up. I’m not too worried though, I can walk to work tomorrow if I have to!

Moved into a new apartment
This is kind of a funny story. We’ve been wanting to move into a bigger place for a while now. Just never had the ambition to do it. Well, the guy in the apartment above us helped us out with this decision by having a little accident. You see, one late evening at about midnight he had a few drinks and passed out in his bathroom. He must have passed out while standing as he fell onto his toilet, breaking the tank and causing water to flow all over his apartment while he lay there passed out and oblivious. Of course, eventually that water all started draining into our apartment below.

Lizzie and I awoke to flowing water. I walked to the bathroom and noticed water flowing from the vent in the ceiling down into the toilet. I don’t think I really understood what was going on at first and I went back to bed. I then woke up enough to be aware that there was kind of a problem at hand, so I got up and looked at it again, and then went down to pound on the apartment manager’s door.

After a long night, we found out the next day that our carpets & ceilings were pretty much destroyed so we had to move upstairs. The apartment we moved to had brand new hardwood floors, new appliances, and an extra bedroom that we could turn into an office. Rather than just taking it as a temporary apartment for a couple months, we told them we’ll just take the place permanently. We’ve been enjoying the extra space a lot.

Coming along on wedding planning
This weeks marks 1 year since we became engaged. We’ll be celebrating our dating anniversary on Wednesday by dining at our favorite restaurant, Ichiban in Minneapolis. We’re coming along well on the wedding planning. There are some things we’re a little behind on like tuxes but I should be taking care of that this month. I finally sat down and designed the save the dates last Sunday and got them printed. We’re now just getting some addresses together so we can get those sent out.

Not much else is new. I’ve just been focusing on the new job and trying to use my new spare time to help Liz with wedding stuff. I’ve been following the primaries and caucuses very closely and have some opinions on the matter, but I’ll save that for another day. I enjoyed the Super Bowl very much, I’m not a Randy Moss fan as I’ve mentioned before, so seeing him fail was rather fulfilling. Meanwhile, racing seasons are beginning this month so I’m looking forward to a new year of that.

So I’ll start writing here a little here and there again. Maybe once or twice a month. We’ll see what kind of time I have, and if I have anything to say. With this being an election year I’m sure I’ll have plenty to rant about.

I’ve sadly let this become everything I didn’t want it to be; when I started it almost 5 years ago, It was a way for me to take the jumbled, mushy mess that is my brain and apply it to something that ended up being very enjoyable for me. I felt like I was connecting with some people out there who I really had some important things to say to.

So much has changed. I’m a 24 now, living and experiencing that strange feeling that is “growing up” in both small and large doses. To be honest, that need to connect with certain people went away recently. I realized that focusing on those closest to me in life is what’s really important. Those are the people who won’t draw unfair conclusions about me. They’ll always be interested in what I have to say.

So in a couple of weeks this blog will go dark, and most of what’s here on dustinmarson.com will also be gone. A new, re-designed website that’s currently in the works will be made live which shows my professional resume and portfolio only. In the next year or two, I’ll be looking for that next step in my career so I’ll be spending a lot of my free time getting my portfolio back up to snuff. I hope to start working on my drawings again, and even dabble in painting a little bit again, just so that I can make my portfolio a little more personal.

I want to thank all of you who kept up on me for all these years, and let me keep up on you. If you want to be let in on the new installment in this little paper trail of mine called life, just email me or give me a call.

I’m still alive. I’ve just been very busy, yet have little to say about it.

Sorry, I’m sure I’ll have something to rant about soon. Going out to lots of movies lately. Some good, some bad.

I had no idea what was going on, all I could see were flames really close, and they were very tall flames and stretched across the parking lot the length of about three vehicles. I woke up Lizzie and we grabbed the Cat. Then we ran down to the garage to jump in her car, mine was in the outdoor parking lot just a few parking spaces away from the fire. We could smell smoke in the hallway as we went down to the garage, it smelled like plastic burning, so I thought a car or cars must be on fire. You see, I was trying to logically think about what was going on out there instead of jumping to the conclusion that it was some kind of armageddon out there.

So we drove out of the garage and around the block back around to see what was going on in the parking lot. We saw the firefighters putting out a car completely engulfed in flames, and there was fire burning on the cement in front of the car as well. They put it out rather quickly.

From our perspective inside, it looked like a lot of fire and it really was pretty close to us. More fire than any little extinguisher would put out, and with it being out by cars which can explode I got a little nervous. We kept hearing loud pops as we were evacuating, probably fuel lines in the car blowing up or something of that nature.

We realized it was obviously under control, so I went out to the crowd of residents standing by the front entrance and asked what happened. No one knew for sure but it sounded like the car just caught on fire as they were driving into the parking lot. It was an 1980s Saab, probably had some electrical issues or something. No one was hurt, and no other cars were ignited.

Waking up in the middle of the night, looking outside and seeing nothing but flames right out the window is definitely a new one for me. It was pretty nerve-wracking, and I think getting the hell out of there wasn’t the worst thing in the world to do. Next time, I might grab the fire extinguisher and try to get a better view before rushing out so quickly. I couldn’t even see that it was a car from where we were, it looked like three cars on fire. I’ve never seen a car burn up quite like that.

So I got back to sleep pretty late. It took a while for the nerves to calm down. Tonight I’m tired from the lost sleep of course. At least I can feel glad it wasn’t my car on fire, and that nothing was lost but someone’s old car and no one was hurt. I feel pretty bad for whoever that was, hopefully they have better insurance than I.

Vehicle graphics is something I’ve always wanted to do, I once had big dreams of designing paint schemes for race cars. The plan was to move out to Charlotte, NC and the gig would be available instantly, of course. I’d be there in Charlotte designing paint schemes for NASCAR, and within distance to design for the open wheel teams in Indianapolis. Well, the world doesn’t work that way. I can’t see myself way out in North Carolina, I don’t know anyone anywhere near there. But, who says I have to go there? The company I work for is just getting into wide-format printing, so a little vehicle graphics might be in the question. I’ll get a little wide-format printing and signage experience and I’ll have the right stuff on my resume for it. That’s sort-of promising.

So I got to visit good old Fargo for this expo. Stayed up in Fargo at the Radisson Friday night, and then on Saturday night and Sunday I paid a visit to the family up in Cooperstown. Did a little snowmobiling on Sunday, and of course every muscle in my body was sore for the entire week afterward. It was about 50 degrees out so the snow was melting and very sticky, which made the snowmobile ride very bumpy and it was hard to turn. It was kind of like driving a car with no power steering, something I’ve had to do a few times before. It was still a lot of fun. The river was still frozen enough to ride on, and we saw a lot of deer out running around the area. One of the deer that got spooked by the snowmobile I was riding had leaped over a riverbank and landed flat on his head. I thought for certain he was a goner and had snapped his neck, but he got up and kept on running.

It was quiet around there, though. My older brother has been living in Fargo for a few years, so my visits home always included him, until this weekend. He’s moved on to greener pastures and moved out to Colorado. He made what I think is a good move and decided to use his GI bill and go to college, he found a school he liked out in Denver. He’s about 30 years old now, but I don’t think anyone’s ever really too old for college. I had classes with people older than that, one of my favorite classmates in college was as old as my parents and now he’s doing well as a graphic artist in an ad agency.

I’m quite excited for my brother, but it was very quiet and odd without him and his rambunctious yellow lab around this past weekend. Not having him nearby is already taking a toll on me. Yeah, I miss my big brother. We’ve been very close over the years, and I’ve counted on him for a lot. But he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. Who knows, maybe we’ll move out to Colorado too some day, we’ve been talking about doing that for a long time. Probably not anytime quite soon, though.

First we’ve got a wedding, and that’s going to be happening June 15th, 2008. We’re slowly moving into the planning stages, we have some time so we aren’t jumping to any conclusions yet. We know that we want it to happen in Minnesota, we’re going to check out some lake resorts up north this summer. I was informed that June 15th is also the wedding anniversary of my grandparents (on my Mom’s side) so that’s kind of cool.

I’ll keep you posted on the planning. In fact, I bought the domain name dustinandelizabeth.com so that we can have a wedding site. I haven’t decided if that’s geeky or not yet. No need for me to be self-conscious I guess, everyone thinks I’m a geek already I’m sure, and that doesn’t really bother me anymore. The dustinandelizabeth.com web site doesn’t have anything on it yet, but eventually we’ll use that for photos from the wedding, announcements, and even RSVPs. I was talking to a friend who recently got married, and he said that one of his biggest frustrations was that 75% of the RSVPs didn’t come by the deadline. Perhaps an online RSVP will cut that percentage down a little bit. I’ll announce when I have something on that new website, I just haven’t had any time yet.

Talk to y’all later… (yes I said “y’all”… I’m practicing my Charlotte, North Carolina accent dont-cha know).