Application to Register Trade Mark "The Supremes" By Mary Wilson Denied

[jobeterob]

18 pages of Reasons for Judgement in the following trade mark case; interesting reading for history buffs.

Whole Judgement at:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/o15801.pdf


2017743 THE SUPREMES CMR
TRADE MARKS ACT 1994
IN THE MATTER OF APPLICATION No 2017743
BY MARY WILSON ENTERPRISES INC TO REGISTER THE MARK
THE SUPREMES IN CLASSES 9, 16, 25 AND 41
AND
IN THE MATTER OF OPPOSITION THERETO UNDER No 46997
BY LYNDA LAURENCE AND SCHERRIE PAYNE

[jobeterob]

There's nothing to be hurt about by this article; it's a piece of Supremes history written by someone who probably doesn't even know the name "Diana Ross" let alone any of the rest of them. Nor does he give one care about sensitivities of the parties or the fans.

So it is a valuable read for any Motown fan. Boring for the casual observer.

[TheMotownManiac]

Mary is a fool. She ruined The Supremes trying to become a solo star and failed as a solo act. Ever since she's been trying to ruin it for all other Supremes. Everything always has to be about her. You didn't hear Susaye and Scherrie begging Mary not to go. Mary only cares about Mary. She is selfish to the core. You left the group!! Stay gone!! The courts say NO to you. Pay your court costs and go be a Vandella. You are NO LONGER A SUPREME.

[antceleb12]

Mary is a fool. She ruined The Supremes trying to become a solo star and failed as a solo act. Ever since she's been trying to ruin it for all other Supremes. Everything always has to be about her. You didn't hear Susaye and Scherrie begging Mary not to go. Mary only cares about Mary. She is selfish to the core. You left the group!! Stay gone!! The courts say NO to you. Pay your court costs and go be a Vandella. You are NO LONGER A SUPREME.

Sorry, but after 18 years the Supremes' time was over, with or without Mary. Let's not bad-mouth and turn this into another bashing thread...

[LadyLola]

Mary is a fool. She ruined The Supremes trying to become a solo star and failed as a solo act. Ever since she's been trying to ruin it for all other Supremes. Everything always has to be about her. You didn't hear Susaye and Scherrie begging Mary not to go. Mary only cares about Mary. She is selfish to the core. You left the group!! Stay gone!! The courts say NO to you. Pay your court costs and go be a Vandella. You are NO LONGER A SUPREME.


Oh blow it out your ass. Maniac is right. You need to be locked up in padded room.

[jobeterob]

I actually agree with Antceleb here.

Mary Wilson made mistakes but she was in a tight spot a lot of times.

And the Supremes day was over; in retrospect, Mary might have had a successful career if she had let the Supremes go in 1972 or 1973.

But by 1974, as the judgement states, Motown had stopped promoting the Supremes and gave up on them ~ nothing much was going right for them ~ a revolving door of members, getting boo'ed at oldies concerts, poor gigs, no hits.

Their day was done.

[smark21]

Oh blow it out your ass. Maniac is right. You need to be locked up in padded room.

I prescribe a long term program of electro shock therapy for Maniac. For art therapy Maniac can roll admit one tickets into giant wheels as he loves to monitor ticket sales. Though such art therapy may agitate him so maybe not. Just electroshock, strait jacket and bathtubs. They did well for Neely O'Hara--for awhile at least.

[midnightman]

Where did the Motown Maniac come from?

[LadyLola]

Where did the Motown Maniac come from?

Someones asshole.

[Jimi LaLumia]

Motown Maniac is entitled to their own opinion, which in this case is totally RIGHT ON!

[jobeterob]

If you examine some of what the Maniac says some of it is fact or close to it or supportable as fact:

~ she ruined the Supremes trying to become a solo act
~ she failed as a solo star
~you didn't hear scherrie and susaye begging mary not to go [[probably because they were clearly better singers with more commercial voices)
~the Court said no to her

So Much of it is right.

[TheMotownManiac]

You have a rather lofty opinion of your thought process to prescribe treatment for anyone when you hypothesize about the moods and intentions of others without enough support data to make such statements. For the record, this conversation took place a year or two ago and was an open question as to why it might be that Aretha and Barbra Streisand as the two most lauded female vocalists of our time, have such a huge discrepancy in demand for tickets. From there it morphed into a current comparison of Aretha, Gladys Knight and Diana Ross sales in similar or same venues. I found it puzzling that Aretha wasn't the biggest draw of the four divas discussed. It was explained to me by others and reinforced in the papers this week. For you to take my interest in a cultural oddity [[to me) and turn it into a personal attack suggesting I have a fetish for ticket sales is even more odd to me. I am seeing Aretha in 3 hours and I can assure you I will not be counting the house or next week for Gladys.
I prescribe a long term program of electro shock therapy for Maniac. For art therapy Maniac can roll admit one tickets into giant wheels as he loves to monitor ticket sales. Though such art therapy may agitate him so maybe not. Just electroshock, strait jacket and bathtubs. They did well for Neely O'Hara--for awhile at least.

[skooldem1]

If you examine some of what the Maniac says some of it is fact or close to it or supportable as fact:

~ she ruined the Supremes trying to become a solo act
~ she failed as a solo star
~you didn't hear scherrie and susaye begging mary not to go [[probably because they were clearly better singers with more commercial voices)
~the Court said no to her

So Much of it is right.

Jobetrob you forgot to say what was wrong though. What is perceived as negative comments, are only "relevant" to a discussion if they are about Diana Ross.

[mwmr]

Simple facts though even if you despise Mary...

she was, and history cannot rewrite it, founding member along with Diana & Flo who made The Supremes history!
without Mary Scherrie and Lynda would never have been Supremes

number of supremes number ones or top ten hits on the billboard charts while scherrie and Lynda ..... NONE

number of supremes records that entered the uk charts while scherrie and Lynda were members of the supremes ..... One [[bad weather uk chart 37)... For Scherrie NONE

[captainjames]

Scherrie Payne had a top 10 hot [[R & B) hit I believe as a member of the Glass House. It is not like she came into the group unrecognizable by everyone.

[jobeterob]

Sounds true to me Mwmr.

Is it true there would be no Scherrie and Lynda in the Supremes without Mary? She did that? Well better them than Kaaren and Shantelle.

Good point Skooldem: very selective whines go up.

But facts from Mwmr; how can I argue with that.

[jobeterob]

Didn't Lynda somehow participate is some silly song named Disco Duck that was quite a big hit somewhere or other?

[REDHOT]

Hey TheMotownManiac,are you and Supremester the same person? I just want to know lol you are too FUNNY lmao

[supremester]

I'm maniacal enough without adding to it, thank you.

[supremester]

Mary was also the ONLY Supreme to be on their first and last hit record.
Simple facts though even if you despise Mary...

she was, and history cannot rewrite it, founding member along with Diana & Flo who made The Supremes history!
without Mary Scherrie and Lynda would never have been Supremes

number of supremes number ones or top ten hits on the billboard charts while scherrie and Lynda ..... NONE

number of supremes records that entered the uk charts while scherrie and Lynda were members of the supremes ..... One [[bad weather uk chart 37)... For Scherrie NONE

[mwmr]

Scherrie Payne had a top 10 hot [[R & B) hit I believe as a member of the Glass House. It is not like she came into the group unrecognizable by everyone.

However during her tenure with the Supremes the biggest hit of that period was number 40 on billboard.There were no huge hits when she joined.

Likewise with Lynda and the one album she recorded as a member of the group [[Jimmy Webb) it bombed.

I appreciate that DRATS had 'bombs' also however weather she sang on them or not, as part of DRATS Mary/they had 12 USA number 1's [[ which she still gets royalties for)

In the UK none of the singles/albums troubled the UK charts when Scherrie was a member.

And just for clarification I adore Scherrie - love her voice and have seen her many times here in the UK!

We all have different opinions but I think this is wrong.

Oddly enough another UK group I follow have also just been through exactly the same.

1 line up has 3 original members and 1 line up has 1 original member and went they went to court - the line up with the 1 original member got the trademark despite the other side having a much higher public profile, having sold bigger venues and often being on uk tv

[midnightman]

These silly discussions about who got robbed of the spotlight and who made the most hits is silly considering that this group broke up about 37 years ago and y'all are carrying on like Beyonce fans vs. Destiny Child fans... sad.

[jobeterob]

Do they do this for Beyoncé too? At least that Kelly lady had hits and a career.

This is interesting reading, likely far beyond what the fans want though.

[midnightman]

^ Shoot they've been doing it for Beyonce... this is nothing new. Every female performer, or most, will always have drama among fans and non-fans on message boards. It's nuts.

[Lulu]

^ Shoot they've been doing it for Beyonce... this is nothing new. Every female performer, or most, will always have drama among fans and non-fans on message boards. It's nuts.

My two cents, as someone who's followed Bey/DC since the beginning: there was some tension among the fan base and the members early on when it seems there was a 'revolving' door of members until they finally settled on Knowles, Rowland and Williams. Legal issues also occurred. However, a few things to remember: Knowles solo career was off and running before she left the group [[films, singles, guesting on other's songs & albums) so it was fairly obvious that she would be doing her own thing. Rowland and Williams have also had their own successes outside of the group since it disbanded. The ladies reunited on record and in performance at the Super Bowl.

I'm sure there are folks who are critical of Beyonce for "stepping out" and succeeding the most BUT I've yet to see it en masse. She is an empire at this point and the opposition seems minimal.

Unlike Ross, Beyonce has a lot more "street cred". Her music has actually become MORE "urban" than pop and marrying Jay-Z [[not to mention her curves) has kept her out of trouble with the Black community. Ross kept on fanning the flames as her music got more MOR over the years, with her marriages to Silberstein and Naess, the lack of real "soul" in her vocals and IMHO her slight figure and propensity to clickety clack around in couture by seemingly every major fashion house. Dressing up like Jackie Kennedy or a supermodel wasn't exactly the deal back then but seems more "mainstream" nowadays as Beyonce also has them all at her feet waiting to create a fantastic look for her runway appearances.

[marv2]

Unlike Ross, Beyonce has a lot more "street cred". Her music has actually become MORE "urban" than pop and marrying Jay-Z [[not to mention her curves) has kept her out of trouble with the Black community. Ross kept on fanning the flames as her music got more MOR over the years, with her marriages to Silberstein and Naess, the lack of real "soul" in her vocals and IMHO her slight figure and propensity to clickety clack around in couture by seemingly every major fashion house. Dressing up like Jackie Kennedy or a supermodel wasn't exactly the deal back then but seems more "mainstream" nowadays as Beyonce also has them all at her feet waiting to create a fantastic look for her runway appearances.


That is a very interesting analysis since Ross &company virtually came from right out of the streets and were once managed by a fellow that was allegedly a street pimp at one time or another. Whereas Beyonce and them were put together and managed by Matthews Knowles, Beyonce' dad who provided them with a very comfortable middle class, suburban lifestyle. Just goes to show you........

It's really ironic that Mary, Diane and Flo , who REALLY came out of the REAL ghetto, were pushed towards becoming mainstream [["the Lady is A Tramp"), whereas Destiny's Child were comfortable suburban kids trying hard to gain "street cred" [[ "Soldier")? LOL! When I think about it now, those two groups really had not much at all in common other than being female and black.

[jobeterob]

Those are intelligent analyses of the two groups.

I think what is really different is the times.

It is possible to see what Berry Gordy was doing ~ and he was polishing some very rough edges off of some groups that were much harder to polish. Everyone in those days was trying to cross over to the pop market and make more money.

These days, Beyoncé has move it in reverse to stay cool and credible. Berry might have done the same thing 50 years later too.

I saw a picture of Beyoncé yesterday; I think it said it was at some Vogue function; she was looking pretty much like Diana look at some premiere ~ I think it was the premiere of The Wiz where she had some net type of affair over her face.

[supremester]

It was last night at The Met. She was doing an homage to Miss Ross. Remember that DMF had a lot of race issues to overcome and felt the best way was to conquer white America on the own turf. The Afro Vogue segue into Somewhere segue into Free At Last proved to the world that color is a color and nothing more. Miss Ross can be whatever she wanted, and be as good or better at it than anyone. than ANY girl of ANY color can be ANYTHING she wants. Afro Vogue or Bob Mackie: it's all Miss Ross inside. it's all taken for granted now, but DMF knocked down doors that no one ever expected to even get unlocked.

[jobeterob]

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/beyonce-wears-givenchy-met-gala-article-1.1781851

[marv2]

This is nothing new. For years the media has tried comparing Beyonce to someone "Supreme". Here they compare her to Mary Wilson:

http://www.peoplestylewatch.com/people/stylewatch/gallery/0,,20053677_20387064,00.html