Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site orca.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!tektronix!orca!andrew From: andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: UNIX trademark registration Message-ID: <1213@orca.UUCP> Date: Wed, 5-Dec-84 16:51:34 EST Article-I.D.: orca.1213 Posted: Wed Dec 5 16:51:34 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 8-Dec-84 06:33:45 EST References: <6012@brl-tgr.ARPA> <426@elecvax.OZ> Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 40 [] "All the semi-official stuff I have seen from AT&T say that "UNIX is an unregistered trademark of AT&T..." . What exactly do they mean by "unregistered"? I have seen several times the statement that it is inappropriate to use the (T) symbol in connection with "UNIX" and yet I have seen AT&T ads which use this symbol. "Does the fact that "UNIX" is "unregistered" mean "well guys, we'd really appreciate it if you don't use this word inappropriately, but we havn't registered it so we can't really do a thing about it ..." or does "unregistered" have some obscure meaning to American lawyers." In the U.S., you get trademark protection by simply using the trademark on a product; you don't have to register it. Registered trademarks are followed by a superscript letter 'R' in a circle, and unregistered trademarks are followed by superscript letters 'TM', not in a circle. To register a trademark, you pay a fee and file it with an bureau in Washington D.C.; this affords you a more solid claim if you ever have to go to court over a trademark violation. This is usually only done by companies with enough legal resources to file such a suit, but that certainly would include AT&T. I'm just guessing now, but I speculate that the trademark might originally have gone unregistered because AT&T, a legal monopoly, was forbidden by law to offer non-telecommunications products in the market. And perhaps there's some legal problem with registering a widely-used unregistered trademark. "Surely a name must be registered before it can be subject to international copyright agreements (I live in Australia)." In the U.S., trademark protection is completely independent from copyright protection. And, in fact, the AT&T Unix(tm) brand operating system is not protected by copyright in the U.S.; trade secret protection is used instead. -- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP] (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA]