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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!mason
From: mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Band-Aid(TM), etc. and nonstop
Message-ID: <2439@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Oct-83 13:58:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.2439
Posted: Sat Oct  8 13:58:26 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Oct-83 10:17:32 EDT
References: <5795@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 16

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)