Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:9509 comp.os.minix:2965
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!lanl!beta!hwe
From: hwe@beta.lanl.gov (Skip Egdorf)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.minix
Subject: I'm going to hate myself
Keywords: Trademarks
Message-ID: <20355@beta.lanl.gov>
Date: 18 Jun 88 20:59:52 GMT
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 47

I am posting this to comp.os.minix because that is where it belongs.
I am posting to comp.unix.wizards because that is where the old-timers
who might remember this reside. Please edit followups as needed.

While digging through my large collection of computer glossy ads
(I never throw any printed matter away) I ran accross something
that should make all the lawyers on comp.os.minix really lick
their chops: A three page advertisement from

 Digital Systems House inc.
 143 First Street
 Batavia, IL 60510
 (312)879-1008

For a product called MINIX (tm) (MINIX is a trademark of Digital
Systems House). I probably picked it up at the vendors show at
one of the Unix Conferences (which doesn't help the date, I have
attended all since 1978).

I don't have a date for the glossy, but it has:

Support for TS (Version 6), GP (Version 7), and PPS (PWB).
There is mention of binary licenses which first appeared for
V-7 (and included grandfathering for V-6 and PWB) around
1980. There is mention of support for 11/70s, bit no VAXen.
The company thrust was to provide a supported, binary Unix(tm)
(Unix is a trademark of Bell Telephone Laboratories, or so
it says on the MINIX(tm) blurb. This may have changed by now.)
as Interactive Systems did about the same time.

My guess would therefore be about Summer 1980.

Now the questions:

1. What ever happened to Digital Systems House?

2. If they are gone (likely), who inherited the trademark for
   MINIX(tm)?

3. What happens to a trademark (such as MINIX(tm)) when a company
   goes away??

Remember, MINIX is a trademark of Digital Systems House Inc.
OH I'm going to hate myself in the morning!

					Skip Egdorf
					hwe@lanl.gov