Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!PUCC!MAINTCMS From: MAINTCMS@PUCC.BITNET (John Wagner) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.policy-l Subject: Re: What's in a name Message-ID: Date: 8 Feb 90 23:08:53 GMT Sender: Discussion about BITNET policies Reply-To: Discussion about BITNET policies Lines: 33 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM Gateway In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 8 Feb 90 16:51:16 EST from On Thu, 8 Feb 90 16:51:16 EST Jim Conklin said: > Probably someone should be writing to vendors and magazines which don't >properly show the trademark symbol when they use these trademarks. Any >volunteers out there; we certainly don't have time for that level of >follow-up at the moment! Writing to vendors and magazines is the job of Cren Corporate Counsel. They may legally say they are reprsenting the board. A volunteer cannot do this. BITNIC could act as a collection agency for reports of trademark misuse (which it would then forward to counsel). This seems in line with their acting as an information center (to the board). > I don't believe the trademark ownership gives us the right to define >standards, but operation of the network probably does if the Board decides >it wants to do so (it's on the agenda!) It may not give you the right to define standards, but it does give you the right to not allow some vendor to use it in their advertising. This means that instead of writing: We support all the protocols in the world, including those used by BITNET ... they would have to write We support all the protocols in the world, including those used by the B.. network. This may seem like a small thing, but it is actually fairly powerful if the board is willing to *LICENSE* use of the trademark (for dollars, pesos, or whatever the local currency is).