Talk:Bobcat Company

PoV and tone problems

   Clearly this is a neglected article; it deserves monitoring against PoV overly favorable to the company. A few examples:

_ _ Vagueness like

the two brilliant and inventive brothers

and

"quick, tough, and agile" which were well[-]suited [terms]

Gives the product a cool sound, but how could these be verifiable assertions of fact?

_ _ Hyperbole such as "Due to the overwhelming business"; nothing is overwhelming unless its size causes collapse of what tries to address it, and examples include getting so distressed about how much money you have to leave on the table for now that you can't engage with the tasks of meeting a realistic production schedule, or misjudging the feasible rate of production to the point where most units promised under an ambitious plan are unfinished at the time when the creditors seize the assets, or failing to keep adequate records of who has been promised what by when. The content suggests that the facts were that the founders had to resort to waiting lists, while they expanded production capacity: that's called deferring, and perhaps missing, sales opportunities that could reasonably have been prepared for: that's frustrating ("there's no such thing as too much profit") but it has nothing to do with overwhelm-ment; that's just another way of dressing up a product with cool-sounding words.

_ _ This attempt at an unholy union of intellectual-property legal theory with philosophical and linguistic theories of "accura[cy]", "incorrect[ness]" and, well, what "meaning" means:

Although the word "bobcat" is sometimes used to describe any skid steer loader, such usage is incorrect. The Bobcat Company owns worldwide trademark registrations for its "Bobcat" name. Accordingly, the word "Bobcat" only accurately describes equipment and vehicles manufactured by the Bobcat Company. The Bobcat Company is currently engaged in a campaign to inform the public of the proper use of the "Bobcat" trademark. Bobcat Company's efforts are targeted at preventing Bobcat from becoming a genericized trademark.

Recommending issuing such statements is probably in practice sound legal strategy in such "a campaign to [persuade] the public". (Which, more to the point, is a campaign to demonstrate, to the courts, diligence in resisting the plain common sense that most people indiscriminately call a skid loader a "bobcat" or even a "Bobcat" because

_ _ they don't regard a chain of purchases dating back to Melroe as an assurance of quality, and
_ _ they have insignificant interest in the differences among manufacturers' skid-loaders.)

Even if the claimed ownership is ironclad, most of the other claims in that 'graph are not fact but PoV adopted out of economic self-interest, and have no place in WP.
--Jerzy•t 10:59, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Jerzy,

Bobcat Company does own worldwide registrations for the BOBCAT trademark, and this is easily verifiable. Representative examples of U.S. trademark registrations for the BOBCAT mark include nos. 890,034, 670,566 and 1,604,367. Copies of the registration certificates and information on these registrations are accessible by their registration number through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Electronic Search System available at http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp. Representative examples of BOBCAT trademark registrations outside the United States include Australian Registration Nos. 707,659 and 198,207 and European Community Registration No. 29371. Information on these registrations can be accessed through the countries’ trademark offices: Australia (http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search_index.shtml), and European Community (http://oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/pages/QPLUS/databases/searchCTM.en.do). Further, your comment that "most" people call a skid loader a "Bobcat" is without any support. In contrast, The Associated Press Stylebook specifically recognizes "Bobcat" as a "trademark for a brand of skid-steer loaders, excavators and backhoes." The trademark registrations, along with the AP Stylebook entry, demonstrate by objective, independent evidence that "Bobcat" only accurately refers to equipment manufactured by Bobcat Company.MBFWiki (talk) 21:25, 26 April 2011 (UTC)MBFWiki

Input from farm country.

I cannot speak to the history of the Bobcat company. I can tell you that based upon experience using a skid steer that the word agile is very apt. It is one of the primary reasons we use this type of equipment in our industry. It can turn around in a circle with virtually no movement in the longitudinal plane. It is small for mechanized equipment and fits well in low ceiling buildings such as turkey growing barns and small cattle sheds. It is used primarily to remove manure here in farm country. Construction companies use it for smoothing gravel and soil, filling in trenches and a multitude of other projects. It truly is a very versatile piece of machinery.

The term used by myself and everyone I speak with is "Skid Steer" when referring to this type of equipment. Bobcat is only a brand, and is only referred to when specifically naming that brand. There are numerous skid steer loaders manufactured by companies like John Deere, Case, Bobcat, and Mustang. I am not up to date on mergers and such, but these are the brands I see most often in my part of Iowa.

Hope this helps.Iowa Farmr (talk) 23:27, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

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