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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!news.moneng.mei.com!news.ecn.bgu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!sundog.tiac.net!usenet From: Jim Williams <williams@tiac.net> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Why isn't NetBSD popular? Date: 18 Aug 1995 12:40:25 GMT Organization: Spherical Projections Lines: 34 Message-ID: <4121np$ig8@sundog.tiac.net> References: <40q6mm$c0l@scotsman.ed.ac.uk> <40qem0$482@sundog.tiac.net> <DDGLEp.MoD@info.swan.ac.uk> <DDGsoo.F3D@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: elision.tiac.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:716 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:4278 comp.os.linux.advocacy:15982 richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) wrote: > >If a term passes into common use, it loses its trademark status. >Help this happen! I am. > >Linux and *BSD are unix, regardless of whether it's legal to say so. > If you are engaged in commercial speech then you are treading on dangerous ground. There's some wording in the law which makes people like the Linux Publicity Project nervious (something about affecting the value of the Trademark, I think). The law specifically mentions "speech which congress may lawfully regulate" (or words to that effect) -- otherwise the Trademark law would have been thrown out by the courts. As things stand, the courts get to muck about quite a bit. Technically, once a company loses a case on it's Trademark the trademark becomes unenforcable. All someone need do in response is point to the precident. (There are some odd exceptions. For example, a coffee shop somewhere in CA by the name of Dunkin Donuts is older than the better known company, and retains the right to use that name within some well defined area.) -- Sphere. Find a Linux/GNU Group for you: http://www.tiac.net/users/williams/lugnuts/ Buy Free UNIX!