Serious trademark trouble.

[Ean R . Schuessler]

My understanding is that the validity of trademarks stands on an 
organization's consistent use and regular defense of a term in the course
of commerce. The longer this mark stands formally unchallenged, the more
difficult it will become to unseat it. If this company develops products,
packaging, advertising and other evidence of commerce and can show use in
various markets this will also increase the viability of the mark.

The failure of SPI and OSI to work out an understanding with the mark will,
if anything, work to the disadvantage of an attorney saddled with fixing
this situation. Not that I'm a lawyer.

E

On Sat, Aug 12, 2000 at 01:04:47PM -0700, David Johnson wrote:
> As I recall, the Open Source trademark was denied to the OSI last year.
> I don't remember the reason for the denial, but the same reason that
> OSI didn't get it would also apply to Navant.
> 
> I suspect that some Navant lawyer did a trademark search, found that
> Open Source was not trademarked, and filed for it. If some bonehead
> bureaucrat does assign it, it won't stand because of previous and
> current usage of the term, and a previous filing. 
> 
> Filing for a trademark or patent is somewhat like a lawsuit. Anyone can
> sue anyone for any reason, but that doesn't mean the lawsuit will reach
> a court of law, let alone win.

-- 
___________________________________________________________________
Ean Schuessler                                                Freak
Brainfood, Inc.                                       Freak Central
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