-=> On 23 Nov 95  17:26:55 Mike Bilow said to Andrew Grillet <=-

 MB> Andrew Grillet wrote in a message to Joe Negron:

 PF> No. DAX was the nickname that IBM is not allowed to use.

 JN> Why?

 AG> Presumably because its the registered trademark of a major
 AG> clothing manufacturer.

 MB> In the U.S., at least, trademark protection only extends to the area
 MB> of trade in which the mark is actually engaged.  A line of computers
 MB> and a line of clothing would not tend to be seen as infringing upon
 MB> each other.  The rule is that infringement occurs when the separate
 MB> uses would tend to confuse purchasers or the general public, as might
 MB> happen in the case of an especially well known mark whose use and
 MB> reputation extended outside its actual area of engagement, such as
 MB> "IBM."  Since "IBM" is so well known as a
computer manufacturer and is
 MB> the fourth largest industrial concern in the U.S., it would be
 MB> infringement for someone to make an "IBM" line of
clothing, since the
 MB> public would tend to assume that the clothing was associated with the
 MB> computer manufacturer.

But we all know that most reviewers employed by computer journals cant
tell their arse from their elbow, so what makes you think they could
tell their trousers from their keyboard? Whait about a suit of software?
I know it should be Suite, but the kids of today can't spell!

We already have a clothing manufacturer advertising "everywear".

In short, I would be prepared to appear as an expert wintess in court
and swear that a significant proportion of the public would end up buying
a software development component when they wanted something soft to wear,
as a result of confusion in mail order houses :-) Of course, I would charge
a modest fee for my appearance.


Andrew

... "Trust me, I haven't done this before and it didn't work then either"
--- Blue Wave/Max v2.12 OS/2 [NR]