Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!asylum.sf.ca.us!karl
From: karl@asylum.sf.ca.us (Karl Auerbach)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso
Subject: OSI Registration
Message-ID: <9002270938.AA19604@asylum.sf.ca.us>
Date: 27 Feb 90 17:38:32 GMT
References: <4473.636099523@nma.com>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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This registration business reminds me of the fellow who notices
promising products in the USA.  He then goes and registers the
trademark of those products wherever he can in other countries.  He
then waits for the product to try to go international.  Then he sells
the rights to the name to the product-maker.

It's legal.  And it's always (almost always, anyway) cheaper to buy
then litigate.

It seems that ASNI/OSI are really about to step into it if they don't
do an *automatic* registration of existing trademarks, service marks,
corporate names, DBAs, etc.  I think this need be done only once, when
the registration system is established.  This will maintain the status
quo ante.  (I don't get to use that legal latin much in this
business!)

I don't understand what it means to talk about this kind of
registration as being subject to "the normal legal context of
intellectual property rights".  If the name isn't registered according
to the existing procedures of law (of which the ANSI/OSI system is not
a part) then I don't see why the legal system even ought to take
cognizance.  Perhaps ANSI/OSI ought to require proof of legal
registration *before* accepting a name.   I can't open a bank account
without proof of identity (personal or corporate), so why should I be
able to register a name without the same level of proof?

					--karl--