jaw@nike.UUCP (James A. Woods) (11/15/86)
# "She blinded me with science." -- Thomas Morgan Dolby
# "He deafened me with law." -- Thomas Morgan Robertson, fancifully
Barry Fox's inimitable Patents column in the New Scientist of
30 October reveals the extent of the matter, about a legal row over the
right to use a joint name. Though no copyright is possible on a name in
"normal use", Dr. Raymond Dolby (the man associated with "that button")
wonders whether Dolby is the rock star's real name, or whether it was
deliberately chosen to cash in on the good doctor's reputation.
Before you groan, be apprised that Thomas Morgan (Dolby) Robertson
claims to have changed his real name to disambiguate himself from
Tom Robinson, another singer.
According to Fox, "Dolby Laboratories became worried about a possible
confusion between itself and the singer when Thomas Dolby began to hit the
headlines. Music papers ran stories headed 'Dolby smash hit'. But, it
wondered, what would happen if Thomas started to get bad reviews with
headlines like 'Dolby flop'." Lastly, Fox notes, "[EMI] Lawyers are now
burrowing among old records to check whether the rock star [son of a
Cambridge professor] did start life with Dolby as one of his names, or
whether this was slipped in later."
I submit, given the pace of the judicial system, the half-life
of popular singers, and the historical curiosity of analogue noise
reduction in "the golden age of wireless", the matter is moot.
-- James A. Woods (ames!jaw, or ames-titan.arpa!jaw)