Copyright Symposium – Wellington, New Zealand, 30 October

You may recall the media controversy regarding the proposed changes to the Copyright Act to deal with downloading from the Internet – due to public pressure the government has delayed enacting this provision and the discussion continues – see my 11 Aug post.

As an Internet user you may be interested to join us at a seminar in Wellington on 30 October which will include a key note address on digital copyright and a panel discussion regarding repeat offenders ….

Full details and registration form are here.

From iSnack 2.0 to Cheesybite

Following a telephone survey of 30,000+ people in Australia and New Zealand, Kraft has settled on the new name VEGEMITE CHEESYBITE – see the survey results here.

Look out for it on a shelf near you…

At least we can’t accuse them of being cheesy, mate – but I do wonder what Pizza Hut may think of this new trade mark given their CHEESEY BITES PIZZA registrations in Australia and New Zealand.

VEGEMITE CHEESYBITE has already been accepted for registration as a trade mark in New Zealand, but an application has not yet been filed in Australia.

I say VEGEMITE, you say iSNACK 2.0

Recently Kraft Foods chose to rename its new version of the 85 year old VEGEMITE product which is popular here in New Zealand and Australia (as is the alternative MARMITE product). For those not in the know, the VEGEMITE product is a spread that is high in vitamin B – in my experience it is not so popular with people in the northern hemisphere but VEGEMITE and/or MARMITE is a staple in every antipodean pantry.

The makers of VEGEMITE clearly love to have the public pick the name for their product. According to the official VEGEMITE site the originators of the VEGEMITE product “conducted a national trade-name competition offering an attractive 50 pound prize pool for the finalists.” This was back in 1922 and now in 2009 the Australian public was again charged with the task of naming the VEGEMITE product.

The winning name was iSNACK 2.0 – clearly chosen to appeal to the younger market. The new product was launched under the name but has quickly been withdrawn following five days of criticism, including thousands of posts on blogs and social networking sites, and Kraft admitted it got the name wrong! So it back to the public for another new name as this is to be decided by mass vote.

In the interim, keep an eye out on eBay for the half-million jars bearing the new name that did make it to market and which are destined to become collectors’ items!