SA>Hi all.
 Hi, Stephen.
SA>Is this possible?  If so, does that mean that we have to technically get
SA>Paramount's permission to even *use* these names in our discussions here
SA>in this echo?  I knew that Paramount was getting serious about protecting
SA>its intellectual property, but to go so far as trademarking individual
SA>character names?!
SA>Steve
 Paramount is getting pretty serious about protecting their property
 rights to the trek franchise.  They are taking every possible measure
 to protect themselves against unauthorized use.
 We do *not* have to get permission to use these names in *ordinary
 conversations*.  Between you and me we have first amendment rights to
 talk about anything we see in public place.  But that's just a private
 conversation.  We could even write stories in which our characters
 refer to watching Star Trek on TV.  That's called "Fair Use".  That
 way I can't run out and copy right the sky and charge people royalties
 for using the sky in their stories.  You can refer to anything that
 exists in the real world.
 I run a Trek fanzine. I may in fact be breaking the law by publishing
 stories set in the Star Trek universe.  My partner in the endeavor says
 that the place where that breaks is if we are attempting to harm
 Paramounts business or profits by the doing.
 Emphatically we are not.  We are not doing this for profit at all.
 I think that the character names are trademarked to prevent people from
 doing rip offs of their "Franklin Mint" merchandise and making a bag o'
 money before scampering off into the night.
 Perhaps I'm hypocritical running our little 'zine and then saying this
 next piece, but really.  If you're going to buy that garbage, at least
 buy it from the authorized Paramount source.  That way, they benefit
 and actually have a reason to keep producing Star Trek.
Jay P. Hailey 
Chief Editor
THE UNIVERSE: TREK
 * OLX 2.1 TD * Cats took many thousands of years to domesticate humans.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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