<HUMMING>
"One of these things is not like the other, one of these...th...hey...oh, come ON!"
I'm too lazy to write a lot right now. But I direct your attention to this article on the Marmot's Hole and to cut through the chaff, read on through to this most helpful comment by Brendon Carr. Here's the Naver report (in Korean).
I did try to keep an open mind about this, thinking that maybe there are aspects of Korean law in general that make is difficult to win cases such as these, sort of how courts unfamiliar with computers and "graphic user interfaces" and the "mouse" ruled again Apple when Microsoft had clearly bitten a big bite out of it ("the icons are not exactly the same"). However, this seems pretty unfair, given Mr. Carr's interesting note about it (linked in its entirety above):
"What’s odd in this story is the Yonhap report indicates that the Starbucks mark is senior to the Starpreya mark — Starbucks registered first. The real question, then, is How on Earth did Starpreya get its registration approved? We’re dealing with a case right now where a foreigner’s registration of its mark in the ice cream space has been rejected because a Korean company has a mark which incorporates one of the words. Their market segments are completely different, and our client will sell in a restaurant setting only, while the Korean product is a supermarket and corner-store brand. But there is apparent similarity in the name (the logos, however, are exactly different) and therefore, says KIPO, confusion is inevitable. Therefore, Mr. Foreigner, no registration for you. But local minnow Starpreya, with the highly-similar name and identical logo, congratulations — your mark is approved."
So, given these stringent standards when foreign companies register, and the "ethnic protection" Korean companies apparently receive – if these two logos aren't different, can you think of any intellectual property that's safe? – seem to be the lay of the legal land?
No wonder Apple won't open an iTunes music store in Korea, as well as many other companies.
The reason I'm thinking about this is because I and several others are going to be opening a business here soon, one we anticipate getting many copycats jumping on. I guess this means we might as well not even try to sue if we get ripped off. I mean, if Starbucks can't get a fair shake in a Korean court of law, could I? Or any other foreign company?
RANT ALERT!!!
RANT ALERT!!!
And Korean folks wonder why foreign countries have SOFA laws in place. As if those two soldiers would have gotten a fair trial.
Which reminds me why foreigners also shouldn't get in fights with Korean nationals, even for self-defense.
You shoulda been there the night I saw the crazy Korean hooker attack a girl after her American John got into an argument with her (he had been harassing the 4 American girls) and he hit one of them and took off, robbing her of a "sale." The girls came to their friend's aid, who was lying on the ground in shock after being popped by a dude, and since the hooker (they apparently didn't know that she was a veritable Itaewon landmark) was "with" that guy, they got in her face about it; well, she didn't like that, and although nobody has exchanged blows yet, the hooker lady went batshit and grabbed hair and started hitting. Obviously, the 3 girls came to her aid, and it was a mini-melee for a minute until one girl just tried to calm everything down and disconnect everyone. It was basically a lot of cursing and hair-pulling, as opposed to 3 girls ganging up on the Korean lady – it was more that one was trying to hit the Korean lady, who had attached herself to their friend's head and hair. In the end, the 4 girls had been just innocent bystanders who had told the hooker's would-be John to "fuck off" after he said some choice words to one of them in their group.
Anyway, I saw the whole thing – would have been solved had the crazy hooker not been refusing to let go of their friend's head; it ended up just being the 5 of them attached to each other, kinda lying/sitting in the street when the cop cruisers came by. What do you think happened?
The instantly arrested all the foreigners – knowing full well that the lady was a hooker and a crazy, unreliable person who is a fixture troublemaker in the neighborhood and scary as shit – and weren't even going to take the Korean lady IN! Priceless. So I started protesting and then snapping my camera as they roughhoused the foreigners into the cars, yelling "I'm a witness! Why aren't you arresting the Korean lady? Is this discrimination?"
To my shock and horror – Korean folks started yelling, "The foreigners hit her first!" which was a bald-faced lie, and I had seen the whole thing, and hadn't seen these folks until the first wended its way down the little alleyway.
I have rarely been more angry in my life. That was just a straight non-truth. Dude. I still have trouble believing such people exist. You can read the rest of the story here, because I don't particularly feel like recounting this incident yet another time.
So if you can be the attacker of a crazy Korean hooker lady with a criminal record (turns out later that the lady had outstanding warrants) and you are just an innocent foreign bystander, don't rely on Koreans' memory of what the apparent truth to trump the instinct to protect their own. Not whether you're Starbucks or attacked by a crazy street hooker in Itaewon.
Sorry – this may not be PC, but I'm talking street smarts. Not unless you've got a friend recording the incident from multiple angles on a couple HD cameras, with a sound recording crew and a team of seasoned French paparazzi, should you even expect to not be the perpetrator.
Sort of like when my black female friend and I were walking down the street, a passing man called out "Nigger, go home" in English, and when she asked (because she couldn't believe her ears), "What did you just say?" and he yelled back, "Nigger, go home" and to our surprise, walked right up into her face as he yelled it, she slapped him.
Of course, after we rushed in to prevent a mêlée, although I wanted to beat the shit out of this asshole, the cops wanted to arrest my friend. Well, it was obvious who hit first, but also obvious that we were being verbally (and nearly physically) attacked.
And also, if you're a foreign woman, don't forget to not be raped in Korea. Because even if anyone lifts a finger to try to find you, they won't make an effort unless the same man is suspected of raping a Korean. Or if you're a 19-year-old female in the US Army raped by a 49-year old taxi driver, you had better yell and scream and be a bloody, dramatic mess, since
The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man's advances, and that he used "not enough violence to constitute rape."
Oh, scratch that. It would just be another case of a GI assaulting a taxi driver. At least then, it would be national news.
And what about the "crazy GI" of the infamous "Shinchon stabbing incident?" Here's a perspective you never hear in the Korean news, but which I had always suspected, because I see that even if I were jumped by 5 Korean men, one of whom had his hands around my throat for 2 minutes before my friend stabbed him with a knife according to the court records (and had been accepted as fact) , this doesn't constitute self-defense.
Funny to know that even I were murdered on the street tomorrow, I wouldn't make the paper because I'm American.
And if you want to go at this without my "bias", be my guest. Here are matching sites, both equally interested in making a case for their side, and in my estimation, one is clearly anti-USFK while the other anti-anti-American.
Jusge for yourself whether you think a loud, odd-duty GI, an unsuspecting group of American and Canadian women, two GI's who killed two middle school girls while on duty, a black women who gets called "nigger" and slaps a probable drunk Korean male attacker, or even a multinational corporation can get a fair shake in either the court of law or the court of Korean public opinion.
I'm not saying they're all similar in either degree of seriousness nor circumstance. I am wondering, however, if, besides the "there's discrimination in the American legal system, too" and "hey, GI's do commit some crimes, so why are you defending them" non-sequitor, non-arguments, you might actually be able to logically say that anyone foreign can get a fair shake in the Korean system.
You think it's fair? Am I distorting the facts? Am I seeing a pattern that ain't here? Then let's talk about it.
Rules to make the discussion effective:
- No "America has discrimination/bad points, too" arguments. Yeah, we know. But we're not talking about that right now. Discussion section for American social critique is in other blog posts, not this one.
- No "Criticism of Korea means you hate Korea" variants, either. At least read this first. God, that argument is so tired.
- No "GI's do commit crimes. Why do you deny that?" arguments, because I didn't even say that.
If you can stay away from these points, we might end up not talking in circles about the same things, again and again. And whatever is said, can we try to play nice, boys and girls? Let's keep our eyes open for the first person to make a clear, ad hominem attack that has nothing to do with the argument.
Who will get the booby prize?
Not it!!
