Being a bully is not entrepreneurialism

An associate brought to my attention recently the antics of the US-based Entrepreneur Magazine. For the last few years the magazine publisher has fought against every entity possible that uses the word entrepreneur in its business name. Yet as far as I can tell, it does not represent entrepreneurs apart from writing articles about them.

Does this mean Ernst & Young will be getting a call asking them to cease and desist in their global entrepreneur award, and spin off publications? And I had to laugh when I discovered that E&Y actually did receive a letter from the publisher back in the late 90s.

The global Entrepreneurs Organization of which I participated and received much benefit from the organisation – with it’s 7,500 members world wide – has nothing to do with the Entrepreneur Magazine. Does this organisation have to change its name?

Now, I’m no expert on trademark law, but Mark A. Lemley, a distinguished professor of intellectual property law at Stanford Law School says, “Trademark law doesn’t give anyone the exclusive right to common English words, much less all variants of those words.”

The latest attack has been on Daniel Castro, founder of EntrepreneurOlogy, who has also filed a federal lawsuit against the publisher. Good on him for standing up for the rights of entrepreneurs everywhere to use the term entrepreneur.

There is the obvious irony of a magazine making its advertising bucks and writing articles to support entrepreneurs, leveraging its resources to attack businesses using the word entrepreneur (biting the hand that feeds you).

Plus this sort of behaviour is so UNentrepreneurial. Being entrepreneurial is about being nimble. About moving fast and embracing change. Not being a bullying behemoth.

Surely it must be a publicity stunt – well I for one have no intention of reading the publication. I’ll stick to Inc. and Harvard Business Review for my US fix on business.

Naomi Simson is considered one of Australia’s ‘Best Bosses’. She is an employee engagement advocate and practices what she preaches in her own business. RedBalloon has been named as one of only six Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand for 2009 and awarded an engagement scorecard of over 90% two years in a row – the average in Australian businesses is 55%. RedBalloon has also been nominated by BRW as being in the top 10 Best Places to Work in Australia behind the likes of Google. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a passionate speaker inspiring people on employer branding, engagement and reward and recognition. Naomi writes a blog and is a published author – and has received many accolades and awards for the business she founded – RedBalloon.com.au.