tanner@ki4pv.uucp (Dr. T. Andrews) (06/10/89)
Here's the promised summary:
No, it is not a protected trade-mark. The reason is that, at the
time of Judge Green, both AT&T and the local BOCs wanted the rights
to it. They agreed, instead, to allow the term to pass into the
public domain, so that both could use it.
Thanks to the mailer for losing the names of the respondants about 5
minutes ago. I suppose that means that it's time to install the new
version...
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...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner ...!bpa!cdin-1!cdis-1!ki4pv!tanner
or... {allegra killer gatech!uflorida decvax!ucf-cs}!ki4pv!tannertanner@ki4pv.uucp (Dr. T. Andrews) (06/21/89)
Follow-up on the summary: one source (tnx to peggy@ddsw1.mcs.com)
advises that British Telecom claimed the name "TouchTone", and that
it is now their property.
I'm no lawyer; I can't say how this affects folks on the other side
of the pond. I would hope that few US courts would support BT if
they objected to me referring to touch-tone w/o ACKing their claim.
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...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner ...!bpa!cdin-1!ki4pv!tanner
or... {allegra killer gatech!uflorida uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tannerpwt1%ukc.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (06/23/89)
TouchTone is a trademark of British Telecom in the UK only. This they state quite clearly when it is used. BTW: In one brochure issues by BT to increase awareness of TouchTone and other services, they claim that TouchTone speeds up connection of the call (fine) and gives you a clearer conversation !!! Well, that is how it read. Peter Thurston