Specialized responds to Stumptown discussion

There has been discussion all over the bicycling blogosphere about Specialized's cease-and-desist to Mountain Cycle's use of the Stumptown brand. Stumptown is a well-known nickname for the city of Portland, and in fact I had suggested using Stump when BikePortland blogger Jonathan Maus was looking for ideas for the name of a cycling column. Portland-based bike builder Mountain Cycles named their hardtail frame the "Stumptown" in honor of their hometown.

Jonathan asked Specialized for a statement about the C and D. Specialized's corporate communications chief Kevin Frank responded.

We were forced to ask Mountain Cycle (or any other company in a similar situation) to stop using the Stumptown name or risk losing the right to it ourselves. We simply have to protect what we’ve worked so hard to develop in order to justify the time and investment we put into making better bikes and equipment for everyone.

I think it's a little weak. Stumptown and Stumpjumper? Not even the same and I don't personally see the brand dilution.

Mountain Cycle's other products include the full suspension freeride Shockwave (trademarked by Macromedia), and full suspension Zen (expect a C and D from Boulder bike builder Lennard Zinn).

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