[haiku-development] Re: I'm interested in developing a project for Haiku

  • From: Michael Crawford <mdcrawford@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 18:39:38 -0800

>> > just happened to think of a decent name for a calendar app a few
>> weeks
>> > ago: Timeline

One would do well to search the US Patent and Trademark database
before committing to any specific names.  The trademark might be
registered in some other country, but there is a good chance that
whereever it is registered, it's also registered in the US, being the
Microsoft of Nations and all.

A certain well-known search firm failed to do due diligence before
naming its popular webmail application "GMail".  It turns out that
"Gmail" was already a registered trademark in Germany.  There was a
lawsuit, which Google naively assumed they could win because of their
own massive PageRank.  They didn't.

http://www.uspto.gov/

Note that one is permitted to use a mark that someone else owns,
provided that the two marks don't conflict.  I'm no IP attorney, so I
won't pretend to explain just when one can use someone else's mark,
but I will point out that the Supreme Court of Canada held that one
can call any business "McDonalds" provided it doesn't sell hamburgers.

I'll send you my bill in the mail.

Mike
-- 
Michael David Crawford
mdcrawford at gmail dot com

   GoingWare's Bag of Programming Tricks
      http://www.goingware.com/tips/

Other related posts: