Brad and others,
Trademarks are serious business as many of you have noted. Here's some more
thoughts.
So, the question could also be: If you have a product for several platforms,
like CE and Pocket PC and Palm OS and Windows 9X, can you not advertise them
as MyAppName CE, MyAppName Pocket PC, MyAppName Palm OS and MyAppName
Windows. Notice I changed it to Palm OS, not Palm and that I am implying
"for Palm OS". E.G. the product name is MyAppName where the "suffix" is a
version indicator. This is another gray area of trademarks.
For example, I see that Novatel calls the Minstrel series V, III, S, m500
and 540 and has avoided the Palm or Palm OS wording, as an example. They
probably didn't feel like taking the potential risk of infringement.
However, I could see a possible infringement with m500. The lawyers would,
of course, be the only winners in a contest like this.
I would always suggest that anyone using obviously "cloned" trademarks refer
to an qualified attorney first for your specific naming. Also, assuming you
want to be legal and ethical, I would also contact the owner of such
trademark to get their feeling of your cloning - in writing of course - from
their legal department.
Gary
Easy Business Software
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bradly J. Barton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Palm Developer Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: Can Palm Inc own the word "Palm" ?
> > > Is this just a bluff, or can they actually 'own' a word that has been
in
> > > general use in the English language for centuries?
> >
> > They cannot nor do they own word 'palm' however spelled. They do,
however,
> > own exlusive rights to use it commercially. This means that you cannot
use
> > word 'palm' to generate source of income or for advertising, or
something
> > like that... I don't see that it would be illegal for a program to be
> > called "PalmAPP", there are arguements for both sides here. It would,
> > however, be illegal to have a program that is called "Palm App".
>
> Mostly true.. they probably cannot, in the long run, stop you from using
> PalmApp as your name.. but they do have the ability to "shut you out" of
> benefits that "properly named" things have, such as the ability to post
your
> products and links at the Palm Website. Trademark law is almost entirely
> gray areas, with each section being open to interpretation.. Palm has to
be
> able to show they've tried to protect their trademark otherwise it becomes
> "watered down" and they lose the ability to do it at all.. this is the
sort
> of thing that happened to Band-Aid and Kleenex both.. Even Palm has
> encountered problems .. ask Pilot Pens why the device is no longer called
a
> Palm Pilot.
>
> When it comes to threatened legal action, though... the bottom line is
that
> Palm has deeper pockets than you..
>
>
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