O'Reilly Lawyers Set Up Shop in the Patent Office

theodp writes "On the same day Netizens fumed over the trademarking of Web 2.0 (R), lawyers for O'Reilly were beating a path to the USPTO to file for a trademark on MAKER FAIRE, lest some Irish scallywag try to co-opt that catchy phrase for a conference. Speaking of NETIZENS, USPTO records show O'Reilly once sought a trademark for that term. And while details are sketchy, USPTO records also indicate that O'Reilly not only sought to trademark the term WEBSITE, it was the plaintiff in a scheduled Trademark Trial involving a defendant who laid claim to the phrase WEB CITE."

Comments

please trademark netizens and website

[192939495969798999]

Dear O'Reilly: Please trademark netizens and Website. Also, feel free to flip through the dictionary and trademark any other dumb word you can. Then, sue everyone that uses those words. The legal system will be so inundated that I'll get tons more work as an IT consultant implementing test cases or what have you for the cases.
Thanks,
signed everyone

They who trademark clipart

[Black Art]

O'Reilly has all sorts of "interesting" trademarks. They have trademarked the Camel on the Perl books. (You know, the one(s) taken from the Dover Animals clipart book.) They will trademark just about anything if they think it will give them an "edge".

I wonder just how much they pay to Dover for all the clipart they use on their covers that have been taken from Dover clipart books. Damn little I bet.