bstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (06/19/83)
You do not need to worry about "Guru" being a trademark, in particular
because it is a normal word.
Trademark law is very tricky, but as I understand it, a trademark has to
be an adjective, and can never be a noun.
This means that there is no such thing as "Unix". There is the "Unix operating
system", where the word is an adjective. Companies wanting to keep their TMs make
sure they refer to things like "Frisbee BRAND discs" and never "Frisbees",
because there is no such thing as a frisbee.
The reason for this distinction is clear. When you trademark something,
you claim use of the adjective as it refers to a certain noun or
class of nouns. Nothing stops me from bringing out "Apple" brand hand-soap
even though there is a registered trademark for Apple brand computers.
If a word is invented like UNIX, I am not sure of the rules.
Some day it might be possible to come out with Unix brand soda-pop.
("Nothing goes down easier than Unix Soda") but I am not sure of that now.
--
Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ont. (519) 886-7304mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (06/19/83)
I'm not sure I agree that only adjectives can be trademarked, I believe that the golden arches people have something like "The Quarter Pounder" trademarked (which allows them to put substantially less than the 4 oz of sawdust that you would expect by the name)...This so disgusted me that I stopped my annual pilgrimage to taste what the masses eat. I think this discussion belongs elsewhere, but I wasn't sure where. .../Dave (..!linus!utzoo!utcsrgv!mason)
bernie@watarts.UUCP (06/20/83)
I suspect that "The Quarter Pounder" is an adjectival phrase describing a particular type of hamburger. Thus someone who manufactures, say, barbells for diminutive weight lifters could also use "The Quarter Pounder" so long as the barbells cannot reasonably be considered to be hamburgers. --Bernie Roehl ...decvax!watmath!watarts!bernie
rh@mit-eddi.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (06/24/83)
There is (in addition to TM, and (c) ) an 'R', also (I believe) with a little circle around it. I think it means something different from TM. Any ideas? --Randy rh@mit-eddie
johnl@ima.UUCP (06/25/83)
#R:watmath:-542300:ima:20400010:000:916 ima!johnl Jun 24 15:10:00 1983 The R in a circle means that a trademark is registered with the trademark office, whereas TM means that you claim it as a trademark but haven't registered it. There is some arcane difference between the two that I don't understand. Registration isn't necessary to defend a trademark, you just have to be able to prove that you've tried to identify it as a trademark, which is why on the back of each genuine Band-Aid brand bandaid it says "Band-Aid is a trademark." Then again, there's the recent Monopoly (the board game) case in which a court held that what's important is that the public associate the trade name with the manufacturer, and since few know who makes Monopoly games, it's not a trademark. Seems to me that under that logic, "computer" is a trademark of IBM. Maybe "telephone" is a trademark of AT&T. Jeez. John Levine, ima!johnl PS: Let's move this to net.misc, if there's further interest.
hal@cornell.UUCP (06/25/83)
Anybody can claim that a word is their trademark (TM). The circled R
means that the trademark appears on a federal trademark register, which
doesn't happen until after a fairly extensive search for conflicts.
Hal Perkins uucp: {decvax|vax135|...}!cornell!hal
Cornell Computer Science arpa: hal@cornell
bitnet: hal@crnlcsnorskog@fortune.UUCP (06/26/83)
#R:watmath:-542300:fortune:11600023:000:632 fortune!norskog Jun 24 20:29:00 1983 No, it does not have to do being an adjective or a noun, it has to do with the accepted meaning of the word. The less meaningful a word is, the more defendable it will be as a trade mark. Thus, UNIX, meaning nothing, is very defendable. On the other hand, Coke, XEROX, Kleenex, etc. have come to mean very specific things, and the owners and defenders of these trademarks do not sleep easily at night. My source is the wonderful book, "Legal Protection for Your software" by Daniel Remer. Lance Norskog Fortune Systems megatest!fortune!norskog hpda!fortune!norskog harpo!... sri-unix!... amd70!...
bernie@watarts.UUCP (07/08/83)
and (c) means the material is copyrighted, which is a different process.
dee@cca.UUCP (Donald Eastlake) (07/12/83)
Then there is always (P) (a "P" in a circle) which you see on phonograph records which is the legacy of a radom federal court decision on player piano rolls...
chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (07/14/83)
Ok, now we know that (C) ["c" in a circle] is "copyright", that (P)
[same idea] has something to do with player pianos, and that (TM) is
for "trademark", but...
What is (U) for?
I've seen it on a box of Cheerios. 'Struth! On the front of the box
it said "Cheerios" in great big letters, then had a U in a circle where
the (R) [Registered trademark] would normally be. Maybe it's for
UNregistered trademark???
- Chris
--
UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!chris
CSNet: chris@umcp-cs
ARPA: chris.umcp-cs@UDel-Relaywex@ittvax.UUCP (Alan Wexelblat) (07/15/83)
The (U) has nothing to do with trademarks. It simply means that the item in the box (note that it appears only on food items) is kosher with either milk or meat. (P) is used to indicate milk-only items, and (K) is idicative of meat-only items. These symbols usually indicate some form of rabbinic supervision (ie the company ought not to go putting them on just any item).
reb@nbires.UUCP (07/15/83)
(U) stands for Union of Orthodox (Jews) and implies that the product meets all of the strict Orthodox Jewish dietary requirements, except perhaps for the direct rabbinical (sp?) supervision clause.
ark@rabbit.UUCP (07/15/83)
I think a U in a circle means the product is kosher.
israel@umcp-cs.UUCP (07/15/83)
The (U) is really a 'U' inside an 'O' or in other words, OU, which stands for Orthodox Union, meaning it has been approved as kosher food. -- ~~~ Bruce ...!seismo!umcp-cs!israel (Usenet) israel.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay (Arpanet)
BYTE@mit-mc@sri-unix.UUCP (07/17/83)
From: Roger L. Long <BYTE@mit-mc> ENOUGH! Let's get on with the business at hand and discuss trademarks somewhere else.
ron@brl-bmd@sri-unix.UUCP (07/17/83)
From: Ron Natalie <ron@brl-bmd> The (U) means that it is kosher. It is the mark used by one of the rabinical authorities which certifies such things. -Ron