Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: mit-amt!rdsnyder%mit-amt.media.mit.edu@eecs.nwu.edu (Ross D. Snyder) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Term "Touchtone" -- No Longer Protected? Message-ID: Date: 11 Jun 89 03:38:19 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA Lines: 22 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 194, message 4 of 9 My understanding is that AT&T registered "touchtone" as a trademark when they invented DTMF, but surrendered it at divestiture (midnight 01 Jan 84). Most of the Bell System intellectual property rights were divided up between AT&T, the RBOCs, and Bellcore, but "touchtone" was instead released to the public domain. The reason was that AT&T wanted to keep "touchtone" to describe the DTMF capablities of its common carrier operations, CO switches, computers, and CPE, while RBOCs wanted to be able to sell "touchtone"-compatible dial-tone. Because of this decision, anyone can now sell "touchtone" products or services. Someone said BT claims "touchtone" as trademark in the UK, which is probably OK under international intellectual property law. The story is different for the Bell System symbol. (There's a good article in a 1971 issue of Telephony magazine on the design of the Bell System symbol and the color scheme of Bell System vehicles.) The Bell System symbol was given to the RBOCs and Bellcore. AT&T had to come up with its new non-concentric circle-within-a-circle-all-made-of-horizontal-lines symbol. Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer (yet). Correct me if I'm wrong. -Ross