Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!vector!nobody
From: map@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU (Michael A. Patton)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Touch Tone Trademark Abandoned?
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Date: 7 Dec 88 19:49:48 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 8, issue 196, message 3

I used to work for a company that made products that used touch-tone
input for access to computer data bases and such.  At one point we
were told by the lawyers that the "Touch-Tone is a registered
trademark of AT&T" should be removed from the manuals because AT&T no
longer owned it.  The rumor I heard was basically that the Baby Bells
and Mother AT&T both tried to claim it in the divestiture.  The Baby
Bells wanted to claim that it was a trademark for the dialing service
(in the CO) and they should own it.  AT&T wanted to claim that it was
a phone instrument related term and they should own it.  Apparently it
was solved when the Patent & Trademark Office declared that AT&T had
not been defending it and therefore nobody owned it anymore.