In which we do celebrity with Meghan and Harry
Tho’ we do insist that we’re just using celebrity with Meghan and Harry to illustrate a point about Gell Mann Amnesia. That last being that when we read a newspaper artcile on a subject we really know about we oft find that it’s really not right at all. But said experts will then turn the page and go on to believe the entirety of the next article upon which they think they are being informed by the journalist rather than knowing they’re being misinformed.
At which point:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s attempt to patent Archetypes was rejected by US officials in the latest setback to hit their podcast business.
Well, no, even that pair aren’t stupid enough to try to patent the name of a podcast series. Given that they are capable of walking and breathing at the same time they really can’t be that daft.
But the British press seems to think they are. There’s that above from the Telegraph, from LBC, The Mail, Daily Express, The Royal Observer (?!) and so on. It’s necessary to turn to the Hindustan Times to get the truth of the matter:
Trademark application for exclusive right for their podcast name “Archetypes” was denied by the U.S. patent and trademark office.
A podcast name would be a trademark, not a patent, even though both are delivered - or not as the case may be - by the US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO.
Given that it’s most of the UK press that has got this wrong we’d very strongly suggest that the mistake is actually in a Press Association piece from which everyone’s drawing their story.
We could just say this is an example of what Granny always said - you don’t want to go believing what’s written in the paper. But we’d want to be a bit more emphatic than that we think. If they’re like this on something so simple then how much are they getting wrong on complicated things like inflation, climate change, resources, political plans and all the rest?
Quite, if they’re not getting it right on things we know about then why are we trusting them to inform us on things we don’t, as Mr. Gell Mann pointed out.