[87832] in Cypherpunks
Re: Trademarking CypherSpace???
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent Crispin)
Tue Oct 7 13:57:57 1997
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 10:05:57 -0700
From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com
In-Reply-To: <199710062122.WAA03996@notatla.demon.co.uk>; from Antonomasia on Mon, Oct 06, 1997 at 10:22:21PM +0100
Reply-To: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
On Mon, Oct 06, 1997 at 10:22:21PM +0100, Antonomasia wrote:
> Tim wrote:
>
> > Seems to me I-Planet can't trademark a word which has been in usage by many
> > of us for several years. What could they do, demand that we stop using a
> > word we in all likelihood coined? Remove our old writings from the Web?
>
> > I don't know about trademark law, and about whether "prior use" invalidates
> > an attempted trademark. It seems unrealistic for them to lay claim to a
> > word someone else invented.
>
>
> The Kodak disposable camera I have in front of me says
>
> "Kodak, Fun and Gold are trade marks."
> and
> "(c) EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY, 1994"
>
> while I have 361 references to Gold, dated 1611, and it was
> very likely an old word then. These trademark assertions are daft.
Prior use has nothing to do with trademark protection, unless it is
prior use in a similar *business*. It's TRADEmark.
--
Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html
