[cctalk] Re: PDP-11/05 early print set for download

On Sat, 18 Mar 2023, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk wrote: In USA, copyright and trademark are handled by two different departments. Copyright registration is handled by Library of Congress. Although registration is not required, in the event of an infringement suit, it makes the copyright largely uncontestable, rendering THAT part of the suit moot. Trademark is handled by the Patent And Trademark Office. Registration is advisable. But even an unregistered trademark, if well documented, can be used to show "prior use", to defend in a suit, or to contest a new registration. Many trademarks have entered common usage, such as "kleenex" for facial tissue, or "Xerox", and are rather diluted, although still not available for competitors to use. In 1987, while doing some business at PTO (Patent and Trademark), I confirmed that "MS-DOS" was trademarked, whereas "PC-DOS was NOT trademarked. IBM considered it to be a description of the product, not the NAME. Similarly, you would not be able to trademark "DOS" due to extensive prior use. I don't know the details of what happened when Concurrent CP/M-86 was briefly marketed as "Concurrent PC-DOS". OB_Disclaimer: IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer), although I did costume as one on Halloween one year. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com