[OSM-talk] Recent edits in the wiki / Trademark issue

[Russ Nelson]

Stefan Keller writes:
 > Just for the curious of this ridiculous U.S. trademark thing:
 > I found another company claiming GEOCODE as trademark:
 > http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/WbEfGtOgm
 > And I'm wondering what these 65 services will do
 > http://www.programmableweb.com/apitag/geocoding
 > especially TomTom with it's geocode.com domain...

Okay, quick explanation of the US trademark system, particularly since
it differs dramatically from the European system.

In the U.S. *anybody* can claim that they have a trademark on
something, and they can bring that claim against an infringer to a
court of law, and present evidence in their favor of that claim, and
of course the supposed infringer can present evidence supporting
various theories that they aren't infringing.

You can also, as an independent but related action, seek a
registration of your trademark. That puts people on notice that you
intend to defend your trademark in a court of law. It also serves as
some amount of evidence that you actually DO have a trademark because
you were the only party able to get a trademark in your field.

However, the trademark status rests on the court case, not the
registration. Until that court case is brought, a registration isn't
worth the paper it's printed on. Until you're sued, you don't know
whether a trademark is valid or not. And ... if you don't have a
lawyer on staff, you'd better plan on not finding out if a trademark
is valid or not.

-- 
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