[unios] *NEW* Unios ;)

[David Jeske]

Intellectual property discussion, yummy..

On Wed, Oct 13, 1999 at 12:38:34AM -0400, Beholder wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Oct 1999, you wrote:
> > Copyrighting is not the right term, you can't copyright a word.  You must
> > have meant trademarked.
> 
> I was told that if you put the word copyright on your page, it's name and
> content are "owned".  I added a "Copyright UniOS Group" to the main page,
> ensureing this.

If you put the word "copyright" with a date and an identity, as in
"copyright 1998 by David Jeske", then you have what is called "notice
of copyright" on that document. You do not hold the legal copyright
yet, but notice of copyright does give you some legal protection.

However, a copyright cannot protect use of a term such as
"unios". Your copyright on the document merely protects the contents
of the document itself. That means that if someone copied the webpage,
and posted it somewhere else, they would be in violation of your
copyright, because they stole the information that you created (the
webpage, the bits).

A trademark is required to protect a term such as "unios". To get a
proper trademark, you need to find a trademarkable word ('unios'
sounds pretty good, it does not sound like a standard word in any
language to me), then you need to (a) check if anyone else is using it
by doing a trademark search with the Patent and Trademark Office, (b)
if nobody is using it, file for your trademark with the PTO,
justifying what you use this trademark for, (c) use your trademark in
a consistant manner associated with the creation and sale (or
distribution) of a product.

Even if you don't file a legal trademark, again, you can get some
protection. For example, I don't know if "Linux" is trademarked, or if
it is, how long it was un-trademarked, however, because of it's
prevalant and consistant use, it's likely that someone trying to use
the term 'Linux' for something else would be stopped if it went to
court.

> Not that it matters either way.  They are using the name for
> commercial purposes, which irks me.

Unfortunatly for you, the PTO rules for trademarks, copyrights, and
patents, are generally slanted towards commercial ventures. The PTO is
around to help companies create and keep solid branding, because the
more companies that prosper, the higher the national GNP, the more
taxes are collected, the greater the US export market, etc... so In
the end, it's good for everyone in the US if companies' brands are
protected.

> But as UniOS is a group effort, and "owned" by the group.  I have to say that
> if anyone else finds this acceptable then, fine with me.  Speak up and I'll
> appologize to the new "UniOS Project" people.  But right now we are nothing
> more than a name and some ideas... I feel we must retian something.

I would take a look at when they started using the name, and when you
started using the name. You should be able to look up their trademark
(if they have one, or if they have one filed) at a local PTO
branch. You could also just look at their company history.

> I imagine in your case, something like Microsoft Tunes (all the
> ideas of tunes at $950 copy + $150 per machine that connects to it)
> would probably irk you, and fare a bit.  Especially if they
> "borrowed" the ideas and then applied some sweeping IP on them, then
> told you, that you couldn't use the names or the ideas unless you
> paid them.

Except for the spiteful part, this is exactly how things should
work. In a sense you "use it or you lose it". There really is no
reason that someone should be able to sit on a name and do nothing
with it. On the other hand, you can protest a trademark filing in
writing, explaining to them how you are already using that
trademark. It can take a year to have a trademark filing be approved,
so there is plenty of time if you are paying attention.

> Maybe it's jumping the gun, but I felt this should be dealt with
> sooner than later (later as in, when they have a real product and
> their laywers e-mail and tell us we can't use the name anymore).

If that is the case, you should trademark the name "unios", unless
they have already done it. It's not very expensive, and if you don't
do it, then it will be their right to ask you to stop using it.

-- 
David Jeske (N9LCA) + http://www.chat.net/~jeske/ + jeske@chat.net