From: "A.Appleyard" <A DOT APPLEYARD AT fs2 DOT mt DOT umist DOT ac DOT uk>
Organization: Materials Science Centre
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 09:59:32 GMT
Subject: Re: legal question
Message-ID: <346125A26F8@fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk>

  I heard this. Any lawyer on channel please correct me. I live in England.
  (1) If the tradename was an ordinary language word before:-
    (a) It can't be used as a tradename for the sort of thing which its
ordinary generic language meaning means.
    (b) If e.g. I make and sell a sort of car called a `Miaow', I can't stop
someone else from e.g. making and selling a sort of aqualung called a `Miaow'.
  (2) If the tradename is a word that I have just invented (e.g. if I invent a
new spacesuit and sell it under a brand name `Takalulo'), that word is a very
short but genuine literary work that I have literary copyright to, and nobody
else can use it as a tradename for anything. If after that `Takalulo' does
turn out to be an ordinary generic language word in another language, e.g. if
it is Upper Mbongolandese for `sweet potato flowers', my tradename would have
no legal rights in Upper Mbongoland, but it would have legal rights elsewhere.