|
Though the question below concerns the IETF’s newly approved APEX specifications, its could really be posed for the titles of the output of many working groups within IETF, so I am posting this question to the general IETF list.
=============================
I know the official answer to this question is “consult a good trademark lawyer”, and I know that engineers are not qualified in trademark law, but would anyone have an “unoffical” comment on the trademark status of the term “APEX”.
If you plug in “APEX” to a trademark search engine such as: http://www.nameprotect.com/cgi-bin/FREESearch/search.cgi you will see there are plenty of approved registrations of “APEX”, including some in the all-important category 42 – which cover computer programming.
So where does this leave the use of the term in the IETF APEX specifications?
A) Is the IETF leaving itself open to legal attack from “APEX” registered trademark owners?
Or:
B) Is a “specification” distinct from a software product, and therefore they fall into distinct trademark categories?
Or:
C) Is a “specification” not a product or a service at all, and as such it is not affected by trademarks, so this is not an issue? (A software company that creates a product that implements a specification would have to be concerned about the naming of that product, but there are no restrictions on the naming of specifications).
Thanks,
Eamon
P.S. Any URLs to back up you answer would be much appreciated.
|
