Don't call them Portaloos

[Alun]

A little warning to future organisers.

As organiser of the event at Bradenham on 10th January, cancelled as a result of lockdown, I mentioned on the event page that facilities included Portaloos.

This afternoon I received a very polite email from the Intellectual Property Manager at Portakabin Limited pointing out that Portaloo is a registered trade mark of theirs, and requesting that we remove all reference to portaloos from our website. See https://tinyurl.com/6nsu9viz I must admit I regarded portaloo as a generic term like Hoover, and felt it was a better understood term than portable toilet.

Organisers may wish to bear this in mind when describing their toilets in future.

[Scott]

Portakabin are famously thorough in enforcing their trademarks.

[Arnold]

One wonders what the Portaloo company has to gain from your not mentioning them - surely a good thing to get free publicity in this way? (As opposed to a competitor appropriating the term for business gain.)

Perhaps Portaloo’s competitors are of such lousy quality as to sully their good name? Or maybe they think that runners will actively choose to attend an event with such illustrious potty provision, and you ought to pay them commission?

[Mrs H]

We definitely got letters of this nature when I worked on one of the smallest weekly local papers in the country back in the 1980s - well before the internet etc - imagine how much research must have gone on to dig those mentions up?

[DaveK]

Well, I could probably do without the P*******s, but not Tom and Julie's burger wagon

[Freefall]

We used Portaloos at one of the Scottish 6 Days. I was actually quite disappointed with the level of service provided and told them so. They were blaming us for going through too much toilet paper despite us telling them what to expect. I am also aware that we need to refer to chemical toilets. Heilan Loos, a popular sight at events in the past (especially the LAMM) are no longer are interested in riff raff like ourselves and are only going for the luxury loo market. Tom and Julie are interested in coming to Lochaber 2021 for the bratwurst fans amongst you.

[Norni]

At a wedding a few years ago, I had the privilege of using a luxury portable toilet. They had leaflets showing off their range. I picked one up to bring along to our next committee meeting, for a laugh, but sadly lost it. I suspect it would have increased the cost of our average colour coded event tenfold. Our meetings tend to go on for an extra hour on occasions when the issue of possibly providing toilets in the forest is raised, then rejected.

[Big Jon]

Are we allowed to call them Port@loos?

[greywolf]

Are we allowed to call them Port@loos?

Shiteshacks

[Big Jon]

Are we allowed to call them Port@loos?

Shiteshacks

Like ))

[Ravinous]

Big Blue Download Boxes.

Thunder Shacks.

Portapotties I think is the American English version!?

[Big Jon]

Kharzis

[Freefall]

Khazi is slang for toilet, possibly being derived from the Cockney word 'carsey'. It is also speculated that it could come from the African language word, Zulu or Swahili, 'M'khazi' that is used to refer to a latrine. It is now most commonly used in Liverpool.

[kedge]

I recall that the first time I saw one of these, many years ago at a White Rose,
they were made by a US company called PortaJohn

[Karen]

I think I remember a brand called BluJohn?