Re: I am being interviewed by OReilly

At 7/7/02 10:08 PM, Ron Snyder wrote:

>> Stay far far away from any name including "SQL Server".
>>
>> (I still like plain "Postgres" though.)
>
>http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-862516.html (march 2002 article)
>'However, in a preliminary ruling issued late Friday, U.S. District Judge
>John Coughenour said the suit raised "serious questions" about whether the
>word "Windows" is entitled to trademark protection.'
>
>http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-893895.html (april 2002)
>'Here's why: An elementary principle of trademark law says that generic
>terms cannot be protected. No company could obtain trademark rights to the
>word "computer" to describe what we all know as a computer, for example.'
>
>My Google searching didn't turn up anything suggesting that this case had
>ever been resolved-- does anybody know differently?

Don't know about that, but for what it's worth, a TESS trademark search
indicates that the phrase "SQL Server" is a registered trademark of...
Sybase(!).

I'm surprised it was allowed to be registered, actually; it seems merely
descriptive. One could certainly make an argument that since Microsoft
also uses the phrase, it's generic, but making such an argument in court
would probably take more money than all of us have put together  :-)

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Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies