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Conducting additional research on how Microsoft's mark for "Windows" may be generic, I ran across a list of "Trademarks That Have Become Generic." The list includes terms "held by the Trademark Office or a court to be incapable of serving as trademarks for the goods and services they named because they had become, in the minds of consumers, generic terms for those products or services."

So, the test would not be whether Microsoft or a particular judge considers that a mark is a generic term, but if the mark becomes a generic term in the minds of consumers. Perhaps a party could present evidence such as surveys or the online and published usage of a term in a generic sense as a means to describe the thing?

Nope, I don't think that they should have a right to sue in that case, because it's the same thing. AIM is a strong trademark, given the installed base. Does that mean AOL should have the right to sue the Aim Recording Company

No. AIM isn't that strong. Such strengths are generally reserved for trademarks such as AMERICA ONLINE®, WARNER BROS.®, NINTENDO®, POKEMON®, MICROSOFT®, DISNEY®, STAR WARS®, and other marks along those lines where use of a trademark by a company in a related field would be considered endorsement of the new business by the existing TM owner. For example, Israel's Supreme Court overturned a registration for "BAKARDI" brand jeans because it was too similar to BACARDI® brand liquor. The Republic of China, based on the island Taiwan, also has a law about famous trademarks. And here's some information about the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995, which sets guidelines for protection of famous trademarks in the U.S.

But remember Tetrisgate? The Tetris Company was found not to have a copyright or patent on the game of falling tetraminoes but merely a trademark on TETRIS®; the cloners simply changed the names of their games, all of which had been clean-room from the start. Nevertheless, the findings didn't stop a quality control consulting firm based out of Edmonton, Alberta, from calling itself Tetris Management Group. Guess the TETRIS trademark isn't that strong in Canada.

Government-granted monopolies[?] are easiest to deal with when problems are solved before they escalate; that's why trademark law (unlike US copyright and patent law) requires TM owners to react in a speedy manner, that is, either license or sue would-be infringers.

Oh, and by the way, according to Lego^H^H^H^H Elgo Irrigation's web site, there was a recent name change.

They also have a list of trademarks that have become generic.

The site referenced above is quite extensive. I suggest we all read it.

They also have a list of trademarks that have become generic.

The site referenced above is quite extensive. I suggest we all read it.

I read the claims. They are broad. And you have to remember that in order to infring a patent infringing a single claim or even a substantial portion of a single claim is enough. Basically it applies to all 3d enviroments matching claim 5. For some more info on patent law, specifically infringing on one, look here.

"Kleenex" is very much a registered and protected trademark, despite the yabberings of the uninformed.

It is important to keep in mind that trademarks are inherently adjectival and must remain distinctive to retain their protected status. While many formerly distinctive marks have made a transition into common, generic nouns ("Kleenex" for "tissue") or even verbs (e.g., "to (make a) Xerox"), this metamorphosis, when complete, sacrifices the trademark to the public domain.

Chattel: Lawyerspeak for "stuff".

From mycounsel.com

Chattel refers to personal property such as a car, pet or jewelry. Trespass to chattel is basically theft, but can also be the temporary "borrowing" of an item. A wrongdoer commits trespass to chattel if he or she intentionally possesses someone else's property without their consent--even if only for a brief period of time. Most courts require that some sort of actual harm result from the trespass to chattel.

Example: If you take your friend's new convertible for a joy ride without his or her authorization and during the course of your ride you scratch the new paint and dent the back fender, you have committed a trespass to chattel

So - if I dump three million spams through your mail server without your authorization, and during the course of that, I saturate your outbound link and/or fill up /var/spool/mail with bounces, you've (a) been harmed by having your bandwidth eaten by me, and (b) been harmed by having real mail dropped on the floor from the full mail spool. To say nothing of (c) the time it takes to clean up the mess.

It's an open-and-shut case, and if your relay has been compromised in this manner, regardless of your moral responsibility to secure the relay in the first place, you can sue the spammer for the damages.

From mycounsel.com:

The five classes of patentable inventions are:

1. compositions of matter
2. processes or procedures
3. articles of manufacture
4. machines
5. any improvement on these patentable categories.

Process inventions
A process or method invention is the operation or series of steps that leads to a useful result....

A process that uses a computer program or mathematical formula to produce a physical result , such as the computer control of a process for producing a product, may be patentable. However, the mathematical formula or method of calculation is not patentable.

God does not play dice with the universe. Albert Einstein