Hey, leave our words alone

This is crazy-making.
If a word is in public use, it ought to remain in common use. Nobody should be able to own it. There ought to be a law.
Instead, consider a newspaper and a beer.
Olympia, Wash., has a newspaper named — not surprisingly — the Olympian. The new owners of the Olympian want to trademark the name.
Makes sense. They don’t want, nor should they have to contend with, another newspaper that might sprout up and call itself the Olympian.
But the owners are running into interference from the U.S. Olympic Committee, which claims that it holds the trademark to all things Olympia/Olympic/Olympiad.
Now, would you confuse the USOC with a hometown newspaper named the Olympian? What would it hurt the USOC to let The Olympian alone?
In fact, it could be argued the Olympian is older than the USOC: Although both organizations began under different names, the Daily Olympian was so named in 1927 and the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1961 (wikipedia).
What’s more, says the newspaper, the 1978 act of Congress that bestowed the trademark upon the USOC made special exemptions for the Olympic Mountains and businesses in western Washington based on the name.
Then there’s the microbrewery in Vermont that came up with a clever pun for a new beer to mark its 10th anniversary: Vermonster.
The small business has received a cease-and-desist order from, ah, monster business Hansen Beverage, which makes Monster energy drinks.
Now, would you confuse Monster energy drink with a small-town beer named Vermonster? What would it hurt Hansen Beverage to let Rock Art Brewery alone?
Our argument is this: The word “monster” existed long before Hansen got hold of it. It’s a word in common usage and should remain so, fair game for anyone.
Hansen can trademark its distinctive Halloweenish logo and typeface, its unique ad slogans or jingles. But it ought not be able to trademark a word that’s been around since, well, since there were monsters.
So much for words; now for an image.
In Charleston, W.Va., there stands a classic Big Boy — the pompa-doured, checkered-pants mascot of the Big Boy restaurant chain. The statue has stood in that city for years, part of Charleston’s history as the origin of what became Shoney’s restaurants.
Shoney’s also once ran restaurants under the Big Boy brand, but it gave up that line of eateries back in 1976.
Due to the severed relationship, Big Boy International now says Charleston has no right to its Big Boy statue.
Now, this case is a little different. We’re talking about a specially created mascot and advertising gimmick which is clearly proprietary and clearly within trademark boundaries. Big Boy has a right to stop someone else from having Big Boy.
But the question is: Should it?
What would it hurt Big Boy to let Charleston, W.Va., alone?
Maybe there’s a bigger question that sums all this up:
Can’t we all just get along?