This isn't the first time something like this has happened. About 10 years ago there was a software writer back east who called his program "Jewish BookShelf", and Microsoft was forced to jump on him because that title infringed on the trademark (or copyright) of their own title. (if he had put a space in book-shelf, there wouldn't have been an issue)
But the issue isn't one of corporate nazi-ism, it's one of stupid legal rules. As I understand it (from watching the previous case), according to US federal law, one who holds a trademark(or copyright, I can't remember which) is responsible for defending that trademark. If they don't, then the trademark office essentially says "Well, that proves you really don't care then" and they take it away from you and declare it open for common use. And I think Microsoft's current attitude is because they lost one of their titles for exactly that reason way back when they started. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Patrick R. Wade Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 8:58 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [eug-lug]Microsoft and Fun With Trademarks http://www.theregister.com/content/6/34955.html Now, one wonders, will they come after MikeOSoft.com? -- "That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX." "Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive." --Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon" _______________________________________________ EuG-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug _______________________________________________ EuG-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug
