dricejb@drilex.UUCP (Craig Jackson drilex1) (08/18/90)
In article <23718@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> Jim.Matthews@dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews) writes: > >At Boston MacWorld Network Resources Corp. was showing MultiGate Mac, a >software router/gateway that does AT and IP routing, IP-in-DDP (KIP), and >DDP-in-UDP (IPTalk). Like the Internet Router it runs in the background. >NRC's phone number is 408-263-8100. > >Jim Matthews >Dartmouth Software Development > >Claimer: MultiGate Mac is based on software developed at Dartmouth, and is >no relation to the Webster Computer Corp. MultiGate.-- I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman whose badge said 'President' at the NRC booth. I noted that the sign above the booth very prominently said NRC Multigate (R) (Where (R) really was the circle-R registered trademark character). I discussed the confusion with the Webster Computing Corp. product briefly with him. He said that he was a bit upset that Webster took his product name. I noted that it appeared that Webster was on the market first, at least in Australia and England. He said that a search of Lexis would have shown Multigate to be trademarked in the U.S. (A very real possibility--one wants to sew one's trademarks up as soon as they are chosen, well before product release.) I asked him if it appeared that NRC and Webster were going to split the world, with Multigate meaning 'NRC Multigate' in the U.S., and 'Webster Multigate' elsewhere. He vaguely concurred in my supposition, without committing himself. I also noted that the Webster box was better known on the Internet, and he acknowledged that to be probably true. However, this didn't seem to bother him much--nor did it seem to bother the guy next to him, who was a marketing guy. I find this situation interesting--I suspect that both Webster and NRC have valid trademarks in their native countries. Since technology sales are global, I wonder what's going to happen? -- Craig Jackson dricejb@drilex.dri.mgh.com {bbn,axiom,redsox,atexnet,ka3ovk}!drilex!{dricej,dricejb}