
How I Got Fired from the Job I Invented - citricsquid
http://aroundtheworldin80jobs.com/how-i-got-fired-from-the-job-i-invented/?
======
spdy
The internet is a funny place a guy with no real traction on his project
(sadly because his idea sounds great ).

68 subscribers 16,535 views Youtube

2,2k Twitter

just has to reach out to the right channels reddit/twitter/fb to start a PR
disaster for a Adecco.

Around the world in 80 (days/jobs/parties/x)

Lets see how they will turn it around, they got bitten by a mistake of not
doing enough market research.

~~~
bconway
_they got bitten by a mistake of not doing enough market research_

Alternatively, they don't see it as a mistake at all (as you pointed out, a
whopping 68 subscribers) and did the math and decided to go with it.

------
pathy
As far as I can tell the agency responsible for the campaign is Mortierbrigade
[1]. I haven't been able to confirm it for sure but the original source [2] I
found it for seems to be quite knowledge about the Belgian advertising scene.

Adecco's/Mortierbrigade attempts to defend themselves on Facebook have been
rather halfhearted so far.[3]

[1]: [http://mortierbrigade.com](http://mortierbrigade.com) [2]:
[http://creativecriminals.com/online/adecco-way-to-
work/](http://creativecriminals.com/online/adecco-way-to-work/) [3]:
[https://www.facebook.com/AdeccoWayToWork/posts/5588127241617...](https://www.facebook.com/AdeccoWayToWork/posts/558812724161752)

~~~
Udo
Halfhearted is a charitable way to put it.

They made it clear that they see nothing wrong with this in principle, they
act as if it's all an accidental naming collision, and they start right out of
the gate with the old "we're sorry some people are upset" non-apology.

~~~
notahacker
How distinctive is the actual video of the "doppelganger"? I'm genuinely
curious, since it's now been taken down.

The name alone could easily have been an accidental collision from a concept
developed independently; I'm pretty sure I've searched for available _around
the world in 80..._ variants as possible name ideas for a travel site, and I'd
never seen Turner's site before (I have read Jules Verne though)

It's a shitty excuse for a nonapology even if it was a genuine accident
though.

~~~
kevincrane
Considering the actual name of their project is his exact blog URL [1], I
can't imagine they looked that hard to see if anyone else had the idea first.

[1] [http://aroundtheworldin80jobs.com/](http://aroundtheworldin80jobs.com/)

~~~
joesb
"Around the world in 80 days" is a well-known title, it's not impossible to
comes up with using the same title for "job" related topic.

~~~
radious
Of course. But you google names you come up with to check if somebody didn't
found it earlier. It's hard not to do that.

------
pessimizer
I'm surprised that anyone can get a trademark on "Around the World in 80 Xs."
I would think that you'd have to get "Around the World in 80 Dishes _with
Slavko Slobovich_ " or " _John Johnson 's_ Around the World in 80 Trees."
Maybe changing the number of Xs or going "Around the Channel Islands" or
something.

I would think anything built on the bare single variable snowclone would be
too cliche to be exclusive.

------
mark-r
I hate to be a downer, but this is why Trademark law was invented. If you
don't or can't get a trademark on your brand, it doesn't make sense to spend a
lot of time, money, and energy promoting it.

There are a lot of slimy people in the world, and if you aren't protected
eventually one of them will take advantage. Even a trademark might not stop
it, but it gives you some ammo to fight back.

~~~
rexreed
You don't lose trademark rights just because someone else files a trademark on
a name you're already using in commerce prior to that registration. In fact,
trademark rights are common law rights -- you don't need to file a trademark
to claim a priority right to that mark.

In this case, his prior usage trumps any attempt for Adecco to claim ownership
on the mark for their subsequent usage -- no matter how much they try to
register those rights with the government. A trademark registration is exactly
what it sounds like a - registration of a mark with the government. It doesn't
give you any rights to ownership over a mark that pre-existed the
registration.

~~~
comrade1
You're confusing copyright and trademark. If he didn't challenge the trademark
registration in the required period he will have a nearly impossible time
challenging it now.

~~~
rexreed
You don't lose rights to a pre-existing mark, even if someone subsequently
registers it. And a challenge is only valid during an opposition period for a
registered mark. This mark is not yet registered! So yes, he could challenge
it during opposition.

As indicated by the USPTO TESS Database, the mark was filed on April 9, 2013,
but it hasn't even been processed, let alone registered by the US PTO [5].
This means that the opposition period hasn't come yet. That means that oh yes
sirree, Turner definitely has a chance to oppose this mark! And oppose he
will. And win he will. So, nothing lost here. A TM symbol confers no rights to
the claimant other than common law rights, which Turner has a pre-existing
claim on.

But he wouldn't even need to challenge it - a subsequent registration does not
entitle ownership for pre-existing marks. See all the citations below [1-4]

[1]
[http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/common.html](http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/common.html)

[2]
[http://www.uspto.gov/faq/trademarks.jsp#_Toc275426712](http://www.uspto.gov/faq/trademarks.jsp#_Toc275426712)

[3] [http://tcattorney.typepad.com/ip/2008/06/what-are-
common.htm...](http://tcattorney.typepad.com/ip/2008/06/what-are-common.html)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Enforcing_rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Enforcing_rights)

[5]
[http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:jyex1k...](http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:jyex1k.2.1)

~~~
comrade1
Ah, great. So he does have time to oppose it. Even though it's relatively
simple to oppose he'll probably still have to put up a ~$6K retainer for a
lawyer to oppose. And if he wanted to challenge their use of his trademark
(even though he didn't register yet) he'd probably have to pay out ~$25K for a
retainer, but realistically, he'd probably spend around $50k to challenge use
of the trademark.

Further, if he wasn't using the trademark for commerce but the new
registration is using it for commerce he isn't guaranteed to win. Trademark is
not the same as copyright - that's why apple can take over the apple trademark
for music.

------
sigkill
Apparently their reaction page is up - [http://www.adecco.com/en-
US/Media/Pages/reaction.aspx](http://www.adecco.com/en-
US/Media/Pages/reaction.aspx)

~~~
stitchy
"We’re sorry for some recent negative comments." What a poorly written
reaction.

~~~
antinitro
"We've worked to resolve this and to create a mutually beneficial solution" \-
well, go on, what is it!?

------
SpikedCola
Not down, but 403'd.

Cached version:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aroundt...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aroundtheworldin80jobs.com%2Fhow-
i-got-fired-from-the-job-i-invented%2F)

~~~
pathy
Perhaps Adecco/PR firm reached out to the author, to solve the matter. Or that
is what we can hope at least.

The site appears to be password protected now so something definitely
happened. Or the site just got overloaded and the author decided to pull the
plug.

~~~
paulgb
The whole site is down, which makes me wonder if they exceeded their bandwidth
due to coverage of this. If so, at least the story is getting attention.

Another possibility is that they were advised by council to take it down, but
it does no good to speculate.

~~~
johnduhart
"website is still being worked on. Stay tuned."

[https://twitter.com/80worldjobs/status/348094066929590272](https://twitter.com/80worldjobs/status/348094066929590272)

------
Netbeing
Amusing: Adecco's website has a live twitter feed widget on it. And it's a
constant stream of tweets ripping on Adecco for this.

~~~
loceng
They must have turned that off now?

~~~
acoyfellow
As of 2:03pm EST- no. They are getting destroyed (rightfully so).

~~~
ashleyblackmore
It's still up

------
spacecowboy
Sounds like an opportunity for Turner to use this situation and the attention
this can generate to amplify his own idea, brand and work.

------
loceng
If he used "Around the world in 80 jobs" prior to their use, they shouldn't
have received a trademark.

~~~
mcherm
That's not how trademark works.

~~~
Retric
It depends, you can win a trademark dispute if you have been using the mark
for a sufficent period before someone else registers it. _Assuming that a
trademark qualifies for protection, rights to a trademark can be acquired in
one of two ways: (1) by being the first to use the mark in commerce; or (2) by
being the first to register the mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
( "PTO"). _
[http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm)

------
hochiwa
Hilarious watching the live twitter feed on their (adecco's) homepage.

------
mariusz331
It's funny watching the twitter feed on Adecco's website:

[https://www.adeccowaytowork.com/en/around-the-
world](https://www.adeccowaytowork.com/en/around-the-world)

------
Arnor
It blows my mind that [http://www.adecco.com/en-
us/Pages/default.aspx](http://www.adecco.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx) is up
today...

------
withad
It seems like every other issue of _Private Eye_ has something almost exactly
like this in their Ad Nauseum column. A lot of marketing companies are
stealing ideas from old viral videos and art projects.

~~~
mpclark
I wonder if this is due to the age boundary between old farts and digital
natives. A young YouTube-aware creative could easily filch ideas knowing
there's a good chance that the senior suits who will sign off the campaign
will likely never have come across the source.

(In fact, my teenage kids also do this to me all the time, but I read rather
more of Reddit than they suspect)

------
nanidin
This was on reddit last night - I can't access the article, but the people in
the comments on the reddit thread were having massive misconceptions about
trademark vs copyright. Also, anyone can put TM next to something - it doesn't
mean they trademarked it. It's the (R) that means you actually put forth
effort to trademark something.

------
matthuggins
Google cache mirror:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aroundt...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aroundtheworldin80jobs.com/how-
i-got-fired-from-the-job-i-invented/)

------
munger
Let Adecco know how you feel in their contact form too should you feel so
inspired (keep it civil though)

[https://www.adeccowaytowork.com/en/contact](https://www.adeccowaytowork.com/en/contact)

I just put one through, feels good.

------
edent
While the site is down, you can watch the author talk about this on YouTube
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjPP6fgpkTE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjPP6fgpkTE)

~~~
BWStearns
You can also go downvote Adecco's ripped off video.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpvBfGUeaZs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpvBfGUeaZs)

~~~
rexreed
It's down now. Not because they regret making the video. Oh no, they don't
have that sense of regret quite yet. It's down because they can't handle the
velocity and fierceness of the negative comments.

------
Zaephyr
FWIW, and it's different from trademark, the Addeco.com website is showing "©
2011 Adecco"

At least they are consistently not paying attention to details.

------
Ashuu
"401 Authorization Required" What is username and password?

------
jamespollack
the twitter feed on the ripoff homepage is priceless right now :)

------
chrisvineup
Site is down...

------
e3pi
Great introduction and images, you worked hard on this! Get any lawyer and
kick their billionairism ass five ways to Sunday for $$$treble$$$ psychotic
grief damages. Site shows they ruined you.

So an effective cease and and desist letter. Prepare to doubly rebutt these
criminal butts' rebuttal:

how-to-write-a-great-response-to-a-cease-and-desist-letter

into: =====>

how-to-write-an-overwhelmingly-terrifying-cease-and-desist-letter:

[http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5907732](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5907732)

[http://abovethelaw.com/2013/06/how-to-write-a-great-
response...](http://abovethelaw.com/2013/06/how-to-write-a-great-response-to-
a-cease-and-desist-letter)

~~~
sk5t
This comment reads like a Dr. Bronner's soap label.

~~~
PavlovsCat
I never heard of that man or the soap before, and this made my day.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Bronner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Bronner)

The label in all its glory: [http://all-one-typography.com/](http://all-one-
typography.com/)

~~~
mikeash
I feel obligated to note that the soap is as great as the label is crazy. As a
bonus, you have something entertaining to read if you ever get bored in the
shower.

~~~
Aloha
^^^ This! I love the soap, and the label is crazy, so was the man.

