Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat

Hi Sonia. You appear to be replying to my post below (Joseph and a Technicality...), even though you've put it in this part of the thread for some reason.


Sonia Van Der Mullen wrote:
>
> Actually there is something that the academy can do. If WAPPA
> wanted to, they can have a look at section 52 of the Trades
> practices act which prohibits companies from enagaing in
> conduct that is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead
> or decieve, This covers radio advertising and handbills. I
> don't think that WACPA have been around THAT long!.
>
> By the way the WA Academy of Performing Arts and the WA
> College of Performing Arts do sound extremely similar. It
> would be fiar to say that anyone who rings for the first time
> looking for WAPPA may get the impression that they are
> dealing with the Academy. It's not the same with John Curtin
> College of the Arts (JCCA) and curtin university of
> technology (CUT).
>
> You're right I'm sure the Edith Cowan people aren't too
> worried about a tinpot company such as the WA College of
> Performing Arts because they will never be in the same
> league. How many people trying out for this show thought it
> was part of the WAPPA initially? I hope those disgruntled
> cast do some extention courses at WAPPA and learn proper
> musical theatre skills and dump the poor "pretend cousin"



Hmmm. I'm not convinced. If you're basing all of this on the fact that their acronyms are similar, I think you're reaching.
What I've looked up on the Trades Practices Act Section 52 indicates that the 'misleading conduct' would have to be proved to be misrepresenting their own product in a sufficient way to cause damages. This is simply not the case.

There are hundreds of examples of businesses with only slightly dissimilar names...'The People's Front of Judea', 'The Judean People's Front'...etc. The order and/or difference of wording DOES need to be specific. Therefore, people shouldn't be surprised that two titles that have different wording actually ARE different businesses.
When the description of your activities is contained within the business name, it is not considered unreasonable unless you are breaching a very specific trademark.

The fact that WAAPA is usually abbreviated to 'The Academy' means that people would probably be alert to another title where that word was conspicuously absent. You're talking about a VERY small percentage of intellects who are likely to get so deceived.

Of course, the fact that you keep calling it 'WAPPA' rather than 'WAAPA' (dropping the 'Academy' part and inventing your own variation) shows that perhaps you ARE someone who might get that confused.


Cheers,
Craig

[%sig%]