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#1
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"SOARING" possibly in legal jeoprady
A feature article in the Durango Herald newspaper (Durango, Colorado) =
this morning about a 5 star resort north of town, Tall Timber, really = caught my attention. They now offer 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, SOARING". If they get this copyright of the = name of our sport of "soaring", the name of the SSA, the name of the = ASA, the name of Turf Soaring, Arizona Soaring, Soaring magazine, etc. = may well have to be liscensed from these folks. =20 I'd say this is something perhaps a batch of "soaring" lawyers would = want to look into pronto. Any copyright or patent lawyers involved in = soaring got any comments? After all, we DO live in a VERY litigeous = society / country. Bob Thompson 19 |
#2
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Eric is right. You cannot protect a name already in common use.
As a matter of fact, common law gives protection to those who have prior use. And, Soaring magazine would have copyright protection, anyway. Colin --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.742 / Virus Database: 495 - Release Date: 8/19/04 |
#3
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Could this mean that big birds could no longer soar?
Are we to be grounded and only allowed to glide. What a terrible thing! Something must be done. GA |
#4
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#5
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Bob Thompson wrote in message ...
A feature article in the Durango Herald newspaper (Durango, Colorado) = this morning about a 5 star resort north of town, Tall Timber, really = caught my attention. They now offer 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, SOARING". If they get this copyright of the = name of our sport of "soaring", the name of the SSA, the name of the = ASA, the name of Turf Soaring, Arizona Soaring, Soaring magazine, etc. = may well have to be liscensed from these folks. =20 I'd say this is something perhaps a batch of "soaring" lawyers would = want to look into pronto. Any copyright or patent lawyers involved in = soaring got any comments? After all, we DO live in a VERY litigeous = society / country. A single word such as 'soaring' is too short to be protected by copyright. The editors of that newspaper certainly SHOULD have been aware of that. They may be able to register "SOARING" (all caps) as a trademark for their 'sport' but that won't give them rights to soaring any more than hormel's trademark 'SPAM' carries over to email spam. -- FF |
#6
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Let me see if I have this right..
Some rich person in an exclusive, gated playground community is going to PAY to be suspended from a wire for the purpose of hurtling downhill some number of feet above the ground? Forget SOARING.. they should call their "sport" EXTREME IDIOCY instead. Two words, easier to copyright. If patrons are that easily parted from their money maybe we should open a franchise selling them Pixie dust to sprinkle on the teeming masses below. Or would Disney sue us for emulating Tinkerbelle too closely? MG San Diego :-) |
#7
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A single word such as 'soaring' is too short to be protected by copyright. The editors of that newspaper certainly SHOULD have been aware of that. They may be able to register "SOARING" (all caps) as a trademark for their 'sport' but that won't give them rights to soaring any more than hormel's trademark 'SPAM' carries over to email spam. Rooibos (redbush) is a form of tea grown in South Africa for many years. It is an Afrikaans word but is accepted in the English language as well as there is no other English word for the drink. It is very popular in South Africa (you battle to get a decent cup of regular tea at a typical Afrikaans household) and is sold locally by many producers. Some person has however copyrighted the word in America and is now the only person allowed to market rooibos in America under that name. No South African thought such a move was possible as it is like copyrighting the word coffee and then forcing everybody else who sells coffee to sell it under another name. It is amazing what can be pushed through the American legal system. Rooibos and Soaring both have seven letters so I don't think that there is anything that protects a single word from becoming copyrighted. Clinton LAK 12 |
#8
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I don't think you are in real trouble. The word Hoover
is a trade mark and copyright but is used generically to describe a sucking cleaning machine, The former head of the FBI, and a large dam. The word Ford could be even worse, again a trademark and copyright and applies to a rubbish vehicle, a former president (Gerald, only a brit would remember him), an actor (Harrison) and a way of crossing a river, which brings us to Bush, a trade mark over here for electrical items but also shrubbery, two presidents and something I cannot mention in polite company but is certainly related in many ways to the aforesaid two presidents. I think SOARING is safe even in the land of the rampant litigators. :-) At 09:06 27 September 2004, Clint wrote: A single word such as 'soaring' is too short to be protected by copyright. The editors of that newspaper certainly SHOULD have been aware of that. They may be able to register 'SOARING' (all caps) as a trademark for their 'sport' but that won't give them rights to soaring any more than hormel's trademark 'SPAM' carries over to email spam. Rooibos (redbush) is a form of tea grown in South Africa for many years. It is an Afrikaans word but is accepted in the English language as well as there is no other English word for the drink. It is very popular in South Africa (you battle to get a decent cup of regular tea at a typical Afrikaans household) and is sold locally by many producers. Some person has however copyrighted the word in America and is now the only person allowed to market rooibos in America under that name. No South African thought such a move was possible as it is like copyrighting the word coffee and then forcing everybody else who sells coffee to sell it under another name. It is amazing what can be pushed through the American legal system. Rooibos and Soaring both have seven letters so I don't think that there is anything that protects a single word from becoming copyrighted. Clinton LAK 12 |
#9
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"SOARING" possibly in legal jeoprady
"You can't copyright a word in general use, and you certainly can't
patent it. No problem here. You might be able to prevent it's use for other, very similar, purposes; e.g., another magazine couldn't call itself Soaring if it was about soaring sailplanes, instead of, say, Peter Pan fantasies." Yes, but recently a patent was issued for the peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. I suppose now each day a mom or dad makes one for their kid's lunch they will have to pay a royalty. Brian |
#10
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"SOARING" possibly in legal jeoprady
Brian wrote: Yes, but recently a patent was issued for the peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. I suppose now each day a mom or dad makes one for their kid's lunch they will have to pay a royalty. Brian I recall that the PB&J patent was for a particular structure that allowed the sandwich to be manufactured, packaged, and sold. The trick was a technology to keep the jelly from soaking into the bread. The funnier one to me was some years ago when someone made a new peanut butter that contained only 100% peanuts--no additives, no hydrogenated oil, stiffeners, etc. He was sued--successfully as I recall, because "peanut butter" had these other things in them. His 100% peanuts only spread had to be called "artificial" or some such because it wasn't similar to the regular stuff. There is some logic to that, but it is somewhat convoluted. |
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