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Xref: sserve gnu.misc.discuss:6180 comp.org.eff.talk:9003 comp.unix.bsd:4860 comp.os.mach:2101 misc.int-property:490 Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!caen!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!usc!rpi!utcsri!torn!utzoo!utdoe!torag!zooid!ron Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.mach,misc.int-property,alt.suit.att-bsdi Subject: Re: Are you sure UNIX is a trade mark? Message-ID: <716101727.10647@zooid.guild.org> From: ron@zooid.guild.org (Secret Mud) Date: 10 Sep 92 05:08:47 GMT Lines: 23 From: bruner@sp15.csrd.uiuc.edu (John Bruner) >I don't understand the glee that some have expressed in finding a >mention of "Berkeley UNIX" in a SVR4 manual. This has no effect upon >the trademark status of the term "UNIX", especially because I would be >willing to bet that the manual explicitly points out the trademark >status of "UNIX" in at least one place. > >One cannot assert that a trademark has lost its protected status just >because it is a widely-recognized name. "Kleenex" is almost certainly >a more widely-recognized name than "UNIX", but it is still a >registered trademark of Kimberly-Clark. >-- I think people would have a better shot at removing the trademark protection from IBM. After all, an awful lot of people with any old PC compatable will say that they have an "IBM". (Puzzling, since most IBM computers, these days, are not very compatable at all.) Kleenex (and Xerox) may be holding on for the moment--but only by sternly policing any generic usage of their trademark. A large number of common words used to be trademarked, but lost that protection when they entered into common usage for any similar generic product: Dry Ice, Escalator, Brassiere, mimeograph, and zipper--all of these used to be trademarked names.