ehopper@ehpcb.wlk.com (Ed Hopper) (12/05/90)
mailrus!uflorida!rm1!bapat@uunet.uu.net (Subodh Bapat) writes: > Talking about the Bell logo, is there any truth to the rumor that, > once long ago, AT&T lost its right to use the Bell logo, as the > copyright expired and they forgot to renew it? The story I heard was > that they had to pay a lot of money to get it back from some smart > entrepreneur who, in the meantime, sneaked in and got the copyright > for himself. > Anyone have any facts to substantiate/dispel this rumor? > [Moderator's Note: I've never heard that story before. Readers? PAT] I don't believe this is the case. The Bell logo is not protected by copyright but rather by trademark law. It is held (at the direction of Judge Green) by Bellcore. A trademark doesn't, to my knowledge, expire unless it is no longer used by the holder. A copyright, on the other hand, will eventually expire. Some movies, for example, are in the public domain as their copyrights have expired. Ed Hopper Ed Hopper's BBS 713-997-7575 - Houston - Free Access to AT&T Employees USENET - ILink - Smartnet PC Board - Markmail Offline Reader System
syd@dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) (12/06/90)
ehopper@ehpcb.wlk.com (Ed Hopper) writes: >A trademark doesn't, to my knowledge, expire unless it is no longer >used by the holder. A trademark expires every ten years, but can be renewed indefinetly. (Of the 1.1M trademarks registered in the US< about 700K are still renewed.) Of course, you can lose a trademark by it becoming the generic name for an item. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator Datacomp Systems, Inc. Voice: (215) 947-9900 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd FAX: (215) 938-0235