mark@umcp-cs.UUCP (09/17/83)
The last issue of Datamation (Sept. '83) had a letter to the editor
protesting the use of the term "nonstop" in an article on
fault tolerant computing. The author of the letter was a company
lawyer claiming "nonstop" is a trademark of the company.
The editors reply was that nonstop had been in the dictionary long
before this company came into existence, and (implicitly) if they
thought they could trademark a common word they were mistaken.
Sure enough, "nonstop" is right there in my Webster's 2nd College
Edition, uncapitalized, meaning "without a stop".
If this company really has a U.S. Registered Trademark on the term
"nonstop", was someone sleeping at the registration office or what?
--
spoken: mark weiser
UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mark
CSNet: mark@umcp-cs
ARPA: mark.umcp-cs@UDel-Relaybstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (09/19/83)
I said this some time ago. Of course you can trademark a perfectly normal word like nonstop, and apple and "A-1" etc. etc. etc. But trademarks are adjectives, NOT nouns, and the trademark only applies when the adjective describes the type of noun specified in the proper use of the trademark. Thus we can have Apple(TM) Computers and Apple widgits, and also plain old apple pie. -- Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ont. (519) 886-7304
mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (10/08/83)
Sorry I haven't been reading net.legal lately but noticed a comment from
Brad Templeton which said in effect that TMs were just adjectives. That
implies to me that I would be in breach of TM if I said I had a "nonstop
computer" implying that it always was up. This certainly seems counter-
intuitive and not in the public interest. Seems to me that using an
inappropriate adjective as a TM should be OK (eg. Apple(TM) Computers),
but if someone tried to register eg. Apple Pies, there should be some
problems for them. This seems to be related to dilution of TM (eg.
Kleenex and Xerox), but it seems that some companies hope to jump in
as a term is starting to become applied to an item (eg. nonstop computers)
and register it as a TM and then try to enforce it. ...pretty strange.
(Sorry for the wanderings, but things like MacDonalds TMing "Quarter-Pounder"
so they don't have to put 4 oz of sawdust in it bothers me)
-- Dave Mason, U. Toronto CSRG,
{cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!mason
or {decvax,linus,research}!utzoo!utcsrgv!mason (UUCP)dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (10/09/83)
The law in Canada is a little complicated, but trademarks do not have
to be adjectives. However, making them adjectival and having another
word to describe the product itself helps your cause, since you can
tell other people what to call their [non-Frisbee] flying discs,
[non-Thermos] vacuum flasks, [non-Kleenex] facial tissue, etc.
Dave Sherman
--
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!lsuc!dave