We should’ve stopped them; thankfully we still can
The marketing folk at Specsavers are not illiterate. We know this because their ad strap says ‘…should’ve gone to…’ and not ‘should of’. Bravo and well done.
On the other hand we can assume that either they have fascist tendencies or are terribly insecure about the sticking power of their work.
How do we arrive at this conclusion?
Because yesterday the UK Intellectual Property Office (surely a gross misuse of the word intellectual?) approved the trademarking of the words ‘should’ve’ and ‘shouldve’by the optician chain. Read more about this attempt at legal larceny of common property here.
This is not the only company to appropriate selected elements from the English language and, in my opinion, they can jolly well sod off!
We have a little time to object to this attempt to nick our birthright. And we should. Write, send an email or telephone, whichever is the easiest for you but please do it.
These are the contact details for the Intellectual Property Office: IPO, Concept House, Cardiff Road, Newport, South Wales NP10 8QQ
Email: enquiries@ipo.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 300 2000
If we fail to object it is surely only a matter of time before we shall all be forced – by copyright and trademark law – to use that barbarian phrase ‘should of’ instead. And that will make us all appear to be functionally illiterate.