Owning 'For the Cure'

The Komen foundation now wants to own the words 'for the cure'. I think that's wrong. They don't own the words. No one does. Its part of the English language.

In real life I am a marketing person (not just a cancer person) and I understand the reasons for branding and positioning and owning your name etc. That makes sense. You don't want to open ABC Dry Cleaning and have someone else in the next town opening ABC Dry Cleaning. People would get all confused. If the cleaners in the other town lost a pair of paints, you would get tainted by their reputation. Do you use Kleenex or do you remember to say 'facial tissue'? See how confusing that is?

The Komen Foundation should not own 'for the cure' because their activities are not for the cure. They raise awareness of breast cancer, and do almost too good a job of it. I do see funds donated by the Komen foundation for awareness but not as much for research. I don't know. I could very well be wrong. But I don't think of them as a big provider of research funds but of awareness and support funds. Now you could argue that dollars spent for awareness and support could be construed as helping with the cure for cancer.

But there are companies with all sorts of logos and brands and slogans which are trademarked and registered. Sometimes its right and sometimes its wrong. But all we want is a cure.