On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Ben A L Jemmett wrote: > > NetWare is also capitalized. > > Irrelevant,
Sorry, but if you happen to be the owner of a trademark, or an attorney employed to defend a trademark, this is VERY relevant - your income depends on it! > unless the word exists in the English language Don't forget 600+ OTHER languages. > prior to > registration of the trademark. An existing word in any language used by the community likely to use the product is a weak choice. A phrase is easier to defend, but often not as "catchy". Imagine the cost of the litigation between "Apple Corp." (the Beatles) and "Apple Corp." (the computer manufacturer) when they both produce CDs... > Also, context is more important -- using > 'netware' in the context of computer networking or filesharing collides with > the trademark. I agree here. If you took the name of a FORTRAN command (like "ARCSIN") for a snackbar, or a movie, you could probably get away with it - but it would be a BAD choice for a name for a new brand of computer, because there are still many people who might buy a computer who would recognize the FORTRAN command. (Note that FORTRAN is one of those languages used by computers that have not yet learned English. ;-) The larger the community likely to use a trademarked product, the harder it is to find a useful trademark. I recall reading an account of how IBM was looking for a catchy name for what they eventually called the "System 360". Every short word possibility they generated proved to be in use, inappropriate (like "goat"), or downright salacious, in one or more languages spoken by their sales-force. Boyd Ramsay [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
