DRAT! Now I have to admit what the T. stands for. Yes Chris and I are very,
very, very, very (did I mention very?) distantly related.
His side did cotton gins (I think they were gins), and my side of the family
had the cotton.
:)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Tazewell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Fusebox" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2000 4:41 AM
Subject: Re: Fusebox.org BAD NEWS.... READ THIS
>
> > I can't find the email now, but someone mentioned that trademarking
> fusebox
> > would upset a lot of electricians. A friend just pointed out that they
> > probably can't actually trademark "fusebox" as its in the English
> > dictionary.
>
> Just to confirm on that. From what I was taught during my Computer Law
> courses (bear in mind this is UK law but should be fairly similar), a word
> which is used freely in the English language (and from that I would expect
> any language) cannot be trademarked itself, that applies to words in the
> Oxford English Dictionary, geographical names and common surnames. Scarily
> enough I wouldn't even be able to Trademark my own surname, 'Tazewell',
even
> thought theres only about 50 of us in the UK, but then it does turn out
that
> one of my ancestors buggered off to the US and only went and named several
> counties and cities after him/herself (ask Fred)!
>
> So back on topic, to clear up something thats probably been confusing a
few
> people, which is the fact that if you search for trademark 'Fusebox'
you'll
> find 5 or six registered in the US alone... the reason for this (unless
> something bizarre is going on) is that the trademark applies to a specific
> way the word is presented. For instance, IBM own the trademark to thier
font
> set that makes up the logo. So lets say for the sake of argument that one
of
> these companies has the word 'Fusebox' in a yellow with an undeline and a
> swirly x or something, that's trademarke-able (is that a word?) because
its
> a look and feel. If somebody copied that design or mimicked it (like if
> somebody had a logo: 'MBI' in the same style as the IBM logo) then that's
> grounds for fisticuffs.
>
> Of course the other side of the coin is the fact that people do get away
> with trademarking things that probably shouldn't be, but who's going to
try
> to sue giant corporations? Incidentally, just to break the flow of this
and
> inject some humour, McDonald's owns hundreds of trademarks, one of which
is
> 'twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun'
> (Ref : http://www.mcdonalds.com/legal/index.html).
>
> So basically what I'm trying to say is this: This Fusebox.com company
cannot
> own the word Fusebox (I feel like a hippy, hey man, you can't like 'own' a
> tree!), otherwise they would be able to sue thousands of businesses around
> the world for not sticking a TM symbol in a house re-wiring manual one
> hundred times.
>
> I honestly think this company is testing the water. They probably know
> they've got no chance bu reckon that if they threaten, they might get what
> they want by fluke. It would cost them more than its worth to take this to
> court, but if they actually do decide to do that, all you have to do is
try
> to figure out how much it'll cost them to do that, and offer them the
domain
> name for a couple of hundred dollars less. That way you make a stack of
> money that you can put towards creating a slightly different logo! ;o)
>
> My 2 pence (sterling).
>
> Taz
>
>
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