Last week the European Court ruled that the word PAKI can't
be registered as a trade mark. No surprise there - EU law, like
ours, says that you can't register names that are contrary to
law or morality, or likely to give offence to a class of persons.
For the benefit of readers in the platteland, I should perhaps
point out that PAKI is not simply an illiterate form of
'pakkie'(which for the benefit of readers in Durban, I
should point out is a small parcel), but a derogatory term used by
some in the UK for people of Pakistani origin, although it must be
said that the average user of the term is unlikely to give much
thought to whether the person he's dissing (or worse still,
bashing) originates from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.
The European Court was not swayed by the argument that some people
of Pakistani origin are quite happy to use the word themselves, and
are clearly not offended by it. A bit Big Brother all this -
'We'll tell you what you find
