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? Message-ID:Date: 7 Dec 88 19:49:48 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 11 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp 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.