Possible future legal problems with "SOARING"

I tried to post this on the RAS earlier, but haven't seen it pop up, so =
thought I'd give it a 2nd try:

A feature article in the Durango Herald newspaper (Durango, Colorado) =
this morning (9/24/04) about a very pricey 5 star resort north of town, =
Tall Timber, really caught my attention: =20

Tall Timber now offers an "extreme sport" of Peter Pan-like zipping down =
through the trees hanging from a wire that they call "Soaring"... and =
they have their lawyers "busily filing for patents and the COPYRIGHT TO =
THE NAME of SOARING". This is a VERY exclusive resort, dealing mostly =
with millionaires and billionaires. The place is SO exclusive, there =
are not even any roads to it. Access is mostly by helicopter.... =
usually taking off from right next to the client's private jets at the =
Durango airport. With clientele like theirs I'd expect they have =
equally pricey and effective lawyers. =20

If they get this copyright our sport, the name of the SSA, SOARING =
magazine, the name of the ASA, the name of Turf Soaring, Arizona =
Soaring, Cumulus Soaring, Honolulu Soaring, Knauff and Grove Soaring, =
etc. may well have to be liscensed from these folks in the future. =
Lawsuites concerning "copyrighted names" are becoming very commomnplace =
these days.
=20
I'd say this is something that the SSA leadership, and perhaps a batch =
of "soaring" lawyer pilots would want to look into pronto. Better to =
become aware of something during the process of formulation than after =
the fact.

see the folowing url: =
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin...ticle_type=3D=
out&article_path=3D/outdoors/out040924.htm

Bob Thompson
19