It seems that the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, Caterpillar Inc., is in serious need of a basic semantics lesson. I came across this article a couple days ago:
“Santa Cruz coffee shop with ‘cat’ in its name hit with cease and desist from Caterpillar Inc.”
Beyond the ridiculousness of a giant corporation going after a tiny local café, what struck me as even more absurd was the following:
- Even if the trademarked ‘CAT’ of Caterpillar Inc. was an oft-used clipping (shortening) of the full word ‘caterpillar’ (and so indicated that wriggling, butterfly-metamorphosing insect), it would not be the same word as the ‘cat’ of the café’s name – “Cat and Cloud Coffee” – which refers to the common feline house pet. These would be homonyms – words which are spelled alike, but have different meanings.[1]
- As it is, no one ever calls the aforementioned insect a ‘cat’ (not that I’ve heard, anyway). So the trademarked term is something else entirely. It has its own unique sense, which can in fact refer to at least two related things: (a) a particular machine produced by the company, or (b) the company itself. Obviously, neither of these are that purring, internet-beloved animal either. They are yet another set of homonyms.
Totally different words. Totally different senses. The news piece doesn’t say this explicitly, but most people possess an intuitive understanding, as evidenced by quotes from café customers:
“’I don’t think anyone correlates the Caterpillar company with their big yellow massive trucks with a small café,’ said Rick Tawfik, of San Jose. ‘I mean, I never thought about Cat and Cloud and Caterpillar in the same sentence until we heard about this lawsuit.’
‘I don’t think they have a legitimate case,’ added Emma Davis, of San Jose. ‘I don’t think I would ever confuse the two of them. It doesn’t make sense to me.’”
Caterpillar’s trademark lawyers apparently lack such common sense, or are (more likely) willfully ignoring it.
[1] Etymologically, hundreds of years ago, the terms could have been related, in that (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) the Middle English word for ‘caterpillar’ catyrpel may have derived from the Old French chatepelose (literally “hairy or downy cat”)…but enough time has elapsed between now and the 11th century that it’s not reasonable to claim a modern meaning connection. Does anyone you know think of caterpillars as “hairy cats”?
*Photo attributions: CAT excavator; Caterpillar; Pet cat
Catastrophic! An attempt to bury such a pillar of the community!
Hahaa, I see what you did there. 🙂
You are good at your craft.
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Aww, thanks auntie! So happy to have you as a reader. 🙂