Trademark News for 06-Sep-2005
- 'New observations by Cassini spacecraft reveal changes in Saturn's trademark shimmering rings
LOS ANGELES ? New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo's time have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years. Among the most surprising findings is that parts of Saturn's innermost ring ? the D ring ? have grown dimmer since the Voyager spacecraft flew by the planet in 1981 and a piece of the D ring has moved 125 miles inward toward ... - 'Sir Alexs trademark move of looking after his good name
Alan Fiddes a board member of the company said: "It is aimed at people who may be trying to rip off Sir Alex. "Over the past few years people have recognised that there is a tremendous amount of value in a particular name. - 'ABC News: Changes in Saturn Rings Baffle Scientists
New observations by the Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo's time have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL/GSFC HO) New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo's time have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years. - 'Neil McAllister: Linus gets tough on Linux trademark
( ) - The GNU GPL (General Public License) means you're free to download the source code of the Linux kernel modify it recompile it repackage it and even make it part of your own products if you want to. There's just one catch: Don't expect to call it Linux that is not without paying up. The word Linux means something to most people. Linux is free software. It's an operating system. It's a competitor to Windows. But when you look closer the actual definition of what Linux really is can get a little murky. For example the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is quick to point out that when most people say Linux they're really talking about a combination of the Linux kernel plus a lot of tools and libraries from the GNU Project. The FSF would therefore prefer you call it 'GNU/Linux.' Then you have Red Hat Enterprise Linux a commercial product you can't get without a license from Red Hat. You have Suse Linux and Slackware Linux and Gentoo Linux all slightly different. All still Linux? What about those Linksys cable/DSL routers that run on an embedded Linux kernel? Can Linksys call those 'Linux routers'? Just who is allowed to call a product or service Linux anyway? Linus Torvalds has an answer for that: Nobody. Not without his say-so. The term 'Linux' is a trademark and Torvalds owns it. His assignee an organization called the is empowered to collect licensing fees from companies and individuals who want to use the word commercially. And if all this seems surprising on the surface the story of how Torvalds acquired the Linux trademark is testament to just how important ownership of the mark really is. Torvalds didn't plan on gaining trademark protection for the word 'Linux' when he began work on his OS but by 1996 he started wishing he had. That's when William R. Della Croce Jr. of Boston first started demanding 10 percent royalties on sales from Linux vendors based on a trademark claim he had filed in 1994. The Linux kernel was still free software but according to Della Croce the name itself was his property. The Linux community was quick to rally to the cause. When the dust had cleared from the resulting lawsuit Della Croce's claim was nullified and the Linux trademark was assigned to Torvalds for safekeeping. But the story doesn't end there. It can't. To maintain a trademark you're required to defend it. That means explicitly authorizing those who are allowed to use it as well as litigating those who use it fraudulently. Both cost money. So LMI maintains a fairly liberal usage policy for the mark and recently has begun charging licensing fees on a modest sliding scale from $200 to $5 000 all of which go to the care and feeding of the trademark. It all sounds so corporate so un-open source. But really it's not. In fact a trademarked Linux 'brand' may have been inevitable. If the open source community is to maintain equal footing with the commercial entities that stand to profit from Linux it needs to play by the same rules they do. That means using the same tools they do including software licenses trademarks and if has its way even patents. If it helps the Linux developer community gain a seat at the grown-ups' table $200 per license is a pittance. SEE ALSO: ADVERTISEMENT Discover a better way to manage the business of IT with IBM Tivoli solutions. - 'Blender :: guide ::
Dennis Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. BLENDER?? is a registered trademark owned by Felix Dennis BLENDER.COM is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis. . - 'Some Legal Support On The Question Of Legal Liability And Text Ads
For years we've been saying that most of these lawsuits against Google for selling text ads based on trademarked terms have in two ways. First Google is just an open service provider and therefore any liability should fall on the advertiser and not Google. However much more important is that most of these ads don't infringe on trademark at all. Trademark doesn't give the holder a monopoly right on their name. The purpose is simply to prevent confusion. So as long as the ad doesn't confuse the user into believing it was put there by someone else it should be legal. It appears some law students are now backing this up with some more legal background. The Executive Editor for the Duke Law and Technology Review has submitted a link to an article that pretty much backs up what we've been saying here pointing out that with one clear and easy to understand exception. If the ad is confusing in a way that violates trademark law and Google is informed about it and doesn't take it down then they may face some liability. - 'Blue Holdings Inc. Enters into Distribution Agreement for Yanuk Products in Japan
a designer manufacturer and distributor of high-end fashion jeans and denim apparel today announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement in Japan for products under the Yanuk trademark effective September 1 2005 with Caitac International Inc. ("Caitac"). Under the terms of the distribution agreement Caitac will be the exclusive distributor of Blue Holdings' clothing apparel including jeans and related products bearing the "Yanuk" trademark in Japan and all of its territories and ... - 'New observations by Cassini spacecraft reveal changes in Saturn's trademark shimmering rings New observations by C
New observations by Cassini spacecraft reveal changes in Saturn's trademark shimmering rings New observations by Cassini spacecraft reveal changes in Saturn's trademark shimmering rings LOS ANGELES ? New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo's time have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years. LOS ANGELES ? New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings which have dazzled ... - 'Linus gets tough on Linux trademark | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-09-05 | By Neil McAllister
It's a competitor to Windows. But when you look closer the actual definition of what Linux really is can get a little murky. - 'Jet Airways buys back its trademark
BANGALORE: INDIA'S largest private airline Jet Airways has bought back the 'right title and interest' in the "Jet Airways" trademark from Jet Enterprise (JEPL) a company owned by its promoter Naresh Goyal along with Mr Hasmukh Gardi for a one-time fee of $7 million. While Jet Airways is one of the best-known brands in this part of the world it did not own its trademark.
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