The Invisible Wars (Real Life not Deus Ex)

Post » Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:20 am

While companies like to put their best face on show when it comes to advertising when it comes to behind the scenes they can be a nasty sneaky bunch.

What are some of the cheap tricks you know (or think you know) that companies have employed to get a leg up on the competition that could only be described at best as... "underhand".

Here in the UK as USB modem dongles were becoming more and more popular, one of the major mobile providers realised that no one had patented the term "Dongle"... so they did.

And then they issued legal warnings to the other major providers warning them that legal action would be taken against anyone trying to use their term without authorisation.

There was a lot of arguing behind the scenes and eventually a compromise was reached but nobody threw any stones in the press because nobody wanted to look bad.

What stuff do you guys know about?

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Daniel Brown
 
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Post » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:52 am

Well I recently signed a contract that pretty much said I could take no legal action against Teddy's Bigger Burgers if they did -anything- wrong toward me, while filling out a job application.

Does that count?
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Shianne Donato
 
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Post » Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:34 am

There's really no 'underhanded' in most cases given companies pretty much have a 'We can do what we like, when we like, how we like in their EULA/ToS, so while dikeish, it comes down to 'You signed the agreement, you were expected to have read and known they could (insert rabble by the public) do this at any time.' The concept of 'Read the [censored] manual' seems lost on most people these days.

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Floor Punch
 
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