[Air-l] "listserve"

[Paul Jones]

Going back in time a bit. There was a kind of a stink over who owned 
listserv the program and listserv the name as BITNET and Educom (later 
EduCAUSE) became involved in a dispute with Eric Thomas over the service 
if not the name and code, hence Eric and L-Soft's lengthy history and 
detailed claims. 

One could, if she wanted to challenge Eric, point out that the BITNIC 
folks had named their code LISTSERV long before him and that his "revised 
LISTSERV" is it were all new code impinges on the BITNIC naming thus 
placing his trademark claim at risk. This is especially true once you 
realize that the term LISTSERV was in use in 1985 and that L-Soft's 
registration was not filed until 1996!

The LISTSERV term then could be said to have been common if not in public 
domain before registration for a decade. And that Eric, pre-L-Soft, 
captured the term from BITNIC for his entirely different (and I will admit 
much improved) product. Then the term eventually registered by L-Soft. 

Now with genericide and despite L-Soft's warnings to us all 
http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/trademark.asp the term returns to common 
use.

It would be instructive, for those of us interested in IP law, to see a 
challenge to L-Soft's ownership of the term.

But don't expect to see that coming from me ;->

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                             Paul Jones
 "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair Gray
                http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/blog/
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