The IPKAT reports a decision of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (CFI). The Community Trademark Board of Appeal decided in September 2001 that BASS (footwear and clothing) and PASH (leather goods and clothing, belts, footwear and headgear) were confusingly similar. The matter came before the CFI in another connection, but the CFI also annulled the decision:

bq. The CFI also annulled the substance of the Board’s decision, holding that BASS and PASH were not similar enough to lead to a likelihood of confusion between the two parties’ goods. While visually the two marks had the same number of letters and same two central letters, the public were not more likely to focus on the central letters than any of the other letters and the similarity between the letters B and P was limited. Aurally, though B and P are pronounced very similarly in some regions of Germany and the only vowel contained in both signs was identical and even though “sh” sound is not used in German, a sufficient part of the German public was familiar enough with the pronunciation of English words ending in “sh” that they would not mispronounce PASH as “pass”. Conceptually, BASS called to mind the voice of a singer of musical instrument while PASH was likely to be associated with the German dice game Pasch.

Well, the Franconians tend to refer to B and P as ‘soft B’ and ‘hard B’.

(From Handakte WebLAWg):

At least six Germans have been sued recently for using domain sites like this:

www.sport-erh.de

Sport is a subject area, erh stands for Erlangen-Höchstadt – in this case an abbreviation used on car number plates, but the name of a town or Land or district would also qualify.

An article in intern.de (see also this blog: blog ) reports that the software patent EP0001163612B1 was registered in December 2001. At that time there was a plan to introduce a kind of ‘local Yahoo’, and the owners of the patent would have wanted to use these names. However, the plan came to nothing, and it appears as if they are trying to make at least some money out of the patent.

I mentioned this kind of behaviour in connection with the Impressum recently. Aas long as people are prepared to sue en masse to get fines, it is worth having an Impressum that sticks to the letter of the law. There is a website called abmahnwelle.de where victims can exchange stories to combat these actions. To look at the forum without joining, just press ‘go’ under ‘Eingang’, without entering anything in the form.

A recent comment on my IKEA entry refers to the famous story that the Chevrolet Nova sold badly in Latin America because Nova means no va (‘doesn’t go’). This is a legend, and there are a number of other translation legends. It is debunked in detail on the Snopes Urband Legends pages.

bq. … the phrase “no va” (literally “doesn’t go”) and the word “nova” are distinct entities with different pronunciations in Spanish: the former is two words and is pronounced with the accent on the second word; the latter is one word with the accent on the first syllable. Assuming that Spanish speakers would naturally see the word “nova” as equivalent to the phrase “no va” and think “Hey, this car doesn’t go!” is akin to assuming that English speakers woud spurn a dinette set sold under the name Notable because nobody wants a dinette set that doesn’t include a table.

bq. This is another one of those tales that makes its point so well — just like the apocryphal one about George Washington and the cherry tree — that nobody wants to ruin it with a bunch of facts. Nonetheless, we’re here to ruin it.

Just a minute – the story about George Washington and the cherry tree is untrue?! But I learnt that at junior school…

I realize I am risking attracting a lot more comments with other translation myths in them. Recounting translation (and machine translation) myths is a popular activity that can get rather boring.

More mysterious signs have appeared:

(No bill stickers – Those damaging this will be held liable/ Rent this advertising space)

(Five semi-detached houses being built)

Here is the Amtsgericht (local court, lower court of first instance in criminal and civil matters) in Fürth on October 4th (back to normal from October 16th).

And here is a picture of the law firm mentioned earlier. Perhaps I did them an injustice: it’s clear that the 2.5 m moving of the vehicle lets both parties’ advertising appear in the best light.

This story from Salon News was reported on the Forensic Linguistics mailing list (thanks to Gillian Grebler).

The girl is 5 and her Hispanic father has been in prison for 5 years, so she doesn’t speak Spanish. Her mother requested that speaking Spanish be a condition of visitation (or access as we at least used to call it in BE – in BE we talk about a visitationof the plague but not of a parent).
The father talks English some of the time, but also tries to teach his daughter about Spanish and some terms.

bq. The judge did not oppose such instruction, but said the rest of the communication should be in English for the sake of the girl’s education.
“The principal form of communication during the periods of visitation is going to be English,” Reagan said. “That does not mean that you can’t instruct and teach her the Hispanic language.”