[accessibleimage] A bit OT, but Freedom Scientific suing, over the word "freedom?"

Hello there to all,

Though this might be a little off topic, I strongly believe that this 
issue is very important to all of us, the blind community as a whole, 
as informed consumers of adaptive technology products.

It is my understanding that Freedom Scientific, makers of Jaws for 
Windows, PacMate, and so on, is suing a smaller yet fairly well 
established company, Serotek Corporation, makers of the FreedomBox, 
because of potential consumer confusion over the word "freedom." 
Coincidentally, Serotek also now as of a couple of months ago, has 
developped two incredibly innovative software solutions, Remote Access 
Management and Remote Incident Management, rather cutting-edge 
software products that enable a blind or sighted technician, for 
instance, to control the computer of another from a remote location, 
in a fully accessible manner.

Why are they suing?  Over the word "freedom."  Apparently FS has the 
idea that people could get FreedomBox, one of the products by Serotek, 
confused with Freedom Scientific and their product line.

FreedomBox as a product, has been around for at least several years. 
Why on earth would we, the blind and visually impaired consumers, all 
of a sudden have such issues with word comprehension, just now?

I quote from the introduction to the petition:

"On May 14, 2007, Freedom Scientific, Inc. filed a trademark 
infringement complaint (case 8:07-cv-00829-SCB-TGW) against Serotek 
Corporation in United States District Court, for the Middle District 
of Florida, Tampa Division. An accessible, text copy of the complaint 
is available at
http://www.shandrow.com/fs_vs_serotek_complaint.txt
We, the undersigned, ask Freedom Scientific, Inc. to cease their 
trademark infringement lawsuit against Serotek Corporation."

To read more, and to sign the online web-based petition, discouraging 
Freedom Scientific from pursuing what I would personally consider a 
rather frivolous lawsuit, let alone potentially alienating some of us 
in FS's own customer base, please go to the following links.

Direct link to petition, on PetitionOnline.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/serotek/petition.html
Or,
http://www.SaveSerotek.org

Please join me, and other blind consumers of adaptive technology 
products, in supporting healthy competition and continued innovation, 
as opposed to one company bullying another over the word "freedom.".

This sort of action certainly does not support freedom for those of us 
who are blind!!

Please express your support, and let's collectively let Freedom 
Scientific know that  we as blind consumers, will not tolerate sharks 
eating smaller fish in the adaptive technology industry!!


Tina E
Please feel free to visit my blog,
Tina's Virtual BackPack:
http://tvbp.wordpress.com
tina-e@xxxxxxxxx

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