[pp.int.general] Fake Rolex

[Richard Stallman]

    >    There is a difference between trademarks that are by nature unacceptable,
    >    and unacceptable use of trademarkes that are OK by nature, but used in an
    >    undesirable way. The directive prevents the former, the examples are in the
    >    latter category.
    >
    > I think the latter is the issue people are looking for a way to
    > prevent and which is the basis for some of the opposition to trademark
    > law in this list.
    >

    It's self regulating. If a formerly good brand 'sells out',
    franchises, licences the trademark or whatever then they very quickly
    lose the reputation that they spent a long time building up.

Has this happened to the Dutch supermarkets?

People can see if they get bad service in a store, but most people are
not expert enough to judge the quality of products, except for the
products they buy often.  So a company that licenses bad quality
products can get away with it for a long time.