Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!cca!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.UUCP Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: xxx is a trademark of yyy - (nf) Message-ID: <351@ima.UUCP> Date: Fri, 24-Jun-83 18:38:06 EDT Article-I.D.: ima.351 Posted: Fri Jun 24 18:38:06 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jun-83 21:45:07 EDT Lines: 22 #R:watmath:-542300:ima:20400010:000:916 ima!johnl Jun 24 15:10:00 1983 The R in a circle means that a trademark is registered with the trademark office, whereas TM means that you claim it as a trademark but haven't registered it. There is some arcane difference between the two that I don't understand. Registration isn't necessary to defend a trademark, you just have to be able to prove that you've tried to identify it as a trademark, which is why on the back of each genuine Band-Aid brand bandaid it says "Band-Aid is a trademark." Then again, there's the recent Monopoly (the board game) case in which a court held that what's important is that the public associate the trade name with the manufacturer, and since few know who makes Monopoly games, it's not a trademark. Seems to me that under that logic, "computer" is a trademark of IBM. Maybe "telephone" is a trademark of AT&T. Jeez. John Levine, ima!johnl PS: Let's move this to net.misc, if there's further interest.