Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:19274 misc.legal:5853
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ooblick
From: ooblick@eddie.MIT.EDU (Mikki Barry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Tim Margeson Speaks - to Thom Henderson et. al.
Message-ID: <10087@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: 17 Sep 88 12:27:38 GMT
References: <3514@tekigm2.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: ooblick@eddie.MIT.EDU (Mikki Barry)
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 21

Sorry, Tim.  From the little I know about trademarks (I'm stuck in
a trademark dispute myself...), simply changing the case of the
letters is not enough.  But you can easily challenge a trademark on
the basis of the letters already being in common use.  Or, if 
someone else can prove first use, usually a trademark will not
be registered.

For example, one company I am affiliated with was using the word "interNet".
We were told we couldn't because someone has registered this as a trademark.
We looked it up, and found that they had not.  We plan to challenge
their registration on the basis of common usage.  But we did find that
regardless of the case of the letters, you can't use the word in the same
type of business.

But, another way around this is to incorporate your name in several
states.  You can then use the name any time you want, as it is your
company.  In most states, you have to add inc. corp. or ltd to the
letters, and you should probably use the entire corporate name when
referring to your company.

Mikki Barry