Re: Debian registered by a trade as TM in Spain!
On Tue, Sep 03, 2002 at 10:59:45AM -0500, Steve Langasek wrote:
>
> The barrapunto article makes it clear that the academy (hmm, perhaps
> "trade school" is better English?) is not holding this trademark for the
> benefit of the Debian community.
academy is right:
academy
n 1: a secondary school (usually private)
2: an institution for the advancement of art or science or
literature [syn: {honorary society}]
3: a school for special training
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4: a learned establishment for the advancement of knowledge
> Can someone familiar with Spanish IP law comment on what weight is given
> to "prior art" in the case of a trademark challenge? I'm assuming that,
> one way or another, some money will have to be spent on lawyers to fix
> this.
Javier de la Cueva (lawyer) said in another message:
"[...] Más importante que el registro de una marca es el uso de
una marca. [...]"
"[...] The point on registering a trade mark is the use of the
mark itself."
and:
"[...] registrar como propia una marca que previamente pertenece al
mundo cultural es una idiotez puesto que en cualquier momento hay
un procedimiento de oposición y te la quitan. Basta con demostrar
la preexistencia de un uso de la marca diferente al registrado."
"[...] registering as of your own a mark that previously's been in
common use is silly, because at any moment somebody can arrange an
'opposition procedure' and the mark will be yours no more. It's
enough demonstrating the previous existence of the use of the mark
in a different way than the registrar's."
I don't know whether that 'in different way' may affect this. Anyway, he
states again in the message that proving that Debian (OS) is prior to
Debian (Academy), is enough to win (and offers himself, bona fide, in
favour of Debian Comunity).
We can translate the entire mail if you want, but these are the relevant
points.
Regards,
Ricardo
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