{"id":36449,"date":"2018-02-16T18:29:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T17:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=36449"},"modified":"2019-04-26T16:14:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T14:14:54","slug":"france-startups-and-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2018\/02\/france-startups-and-pitch\/","title":{"rendered":"#FRENCHTECHFRIDAY: Why France’s startups can no longer “Pitch”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A strange battle is taking place in France right now. A cake maker is threatening startups of legal action for using the word “pitch”. This could seem like a comical slip-up if it weren’t, in fact, tragic for France’s image abroad.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pasquier vs Startups<\/h3>\n
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The “startup nation”<\/strong> is taking an unexpected blow. <\/span>Keen to display openness, to provide fertile grounds for upcoming startups, France is facing an attack from another age<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pasquier<\/strong>, maker of cakes, has a star product: “Pitch<\/strong>“. It’s a little fatty “milk bread” filled with chocolate. The main target are the kids as you could guess <\/span>just<\/span><\/span> by looking at the packaging. So what does this have to do with France based startups?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It starts with the product name. <\/span>The trademark <\/span><\/span>was registered<\/span><\/span>, as it should, with the INPI<\/strong> (National Institute of Intellectual Property)<\/span><\/span>. The brand owner must choose the class in which he wishes to register. <\/span>For some reasons, Pasquier decided to register the name “Pitch” in classes outside food, such as “training”<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. <\/span> Therefore<\/span><\/span>, any training facility helping startup CEOs to upgrade their pitch cannot use that name in their brand<\/span><\/span>. Events like “Pitch in the plane” become intellectual property theft.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Is this a joke?<\/h3>\n
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The first reaction is usually that of incredulous<\/strong> giggles. This could be a well designed April’s fool. <\/strong><\/span>The French candy maker “Carambar” had announced some weeks <\/span><\/span>prior to<\/span><\/span> April 1st that they would discard the jokes hidden inside their packaging<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>These jokes were such a trademark that people all over France signed petitions asking them to reconsider<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. Laughter – and relief – made for a big marketing stunt when they annouced it wasn’t true on April 1st<\/strong>. But April is still some way away. And startups have started receiving <\/span>cease<\/span><\/strong> and desist letters<\/strong>. This would be taking the joke a bit too far.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Is this a language fight?<\/h3>\n
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It also brings other puzzling questions. A common word cannot become a registered trademark. Sure, “pitch” is not a French word.<\/strong> Yet it is <\/span>commonly<\/span><\/span> used in the startup, litterature and movie worlds. One can look it up in a French dictionnary<\/strong>. And this is were is gets tragic.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Languages that grow are the languages that bring in new words. Either made up or imported from foreign countries. <\/span>France has an history of so-called “French exception”<\/strong>, resisting foreign influences as much as possible<\/span><\/span>. This gave France the reputation of an old country, closed to innovation.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Is France the home of bigotry?<\/h3>\n
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Fighting hard to overturn this image, we are now putting forward mantras such as #Franceisback and “startup nation”<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Yet, such actions undermine all these efforts by bringing back the old demons: “France is a home for bigotry”<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. <\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This is not true,<\/strong> of course, but it reminds us that while trying to move forward, one should always be watchful of those who regret the old ways<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Besides, it doesn’t answer the critical questions. Why did the INPI accept the registration of a commun word? Why does Pasquier have such resentment towards startups? <\/span>Obviously<\/span><\/span> “Pitch on a plane” is not about eating cakes on an aircraft<\/span><\/strong>.<\/strong> How can this be of prejudice to Pasquier? Is this about saving the French language?<\/strong> Is this even a publicity stunt that turned sour? Is this <\/span>just<\/span><\/span> for easy money?<\/strong> As a patent troll would do?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Bad marketing and bad communication<\/h3>\n
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None of this is clear. <\/span>Pasquier delivered a press release which made things worse in an impulse of bad communication<\/strong><\/span><\/span>.<\/strong> The hashtag #Pitchgate<\/strong> is roaming Twitter. The Wikipedia page of the group now includes the Pitchgate. Fun bit is, INPI organized a a “<\/span>pitch night<\/span><\/a>” last November and it wasn’t about stuffing your face with cakes.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There is a comforting thought<\/strong>, though: just about no-one supports Pasquier’s actions. <\/span>They’re stuck between a Streisand effect<\/strong> and a David vs Goliath<\/strong> opus, where they’re playing Goliath<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Maybe<\/span><\/span> this will, in time, become a case study for marketers and communication officers. <\/span>In the meantime, let’s hope this brings little prejudice for those who try everyday to make things happen in the French startup ecosystem<\/span><\/span>. And that it does not bring down the image of a witty, disruptive and innovating country.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A strange battle is taking place in France right now. A cake maker is threatening startups of legal action for using the word “pitch”. This could seem like a comical slip-up if it weren’t, in fact, tragic for France’s image abroad. \u00a0 Pasquier vs Startups The “startup nation” is taking an unexpected blow. Keen to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":36452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1962],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-leisure"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}