*BSD News Article 49336


Return to BSD News archive

#! rnews 1665 bsd
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!oleane!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!chilton!chris
From: chris@vindaloo.com (Christopher Sean Hilton)
Subject: Unix (tm) or Unix? Was Re: Why isn't NetBSD popular?
Organization: Vindaloo communications
Message-ID: <1995Aug19.215011.29274@vindaloo.com>
References: <40q6mm$c0l@scotsman.ed.ac.uk> <DDGLEp.MoD@info.swan.ac.uk> <DDGsoo.F3D@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <4121np$ig8@sundog.tiac.net>
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 95 21:50:11 GMT
Lines: 30

In article <4121np$ig8@sundog.tiac.net>,
Jim Williams  <williams@tiac.net> wrote:
>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.
>

Doesn't the trademark owner have some say in this. E.g. if the people
that own the Registration/Trademark on Kleenex (to use the court's
example) don't send you a nasty letter each time you use the term
kleenex in a publication without the TM or R. Then Kleenex loses its
trademark status. If on the other hand they do send you a letter then
when the court fight comes up they present a stack of these letters
that they've send out and the postage receipts and that's it, it stays
a trademark. 

This is how I understand it from the "defense" AT&T put up of Unix
(tm) in the eighties. I don't have one of their letters but a couple
of friends do.

Chris.

-- 
--
Chris Hilton <chris@vindaloo.com> -+- For PGP Key: finger chilton@mcs.net

Officer: We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger. Should