Trademark Trouble: Asterix - MobiliX
Dear List Members,
the site MobiliX http://mobilix.org is dedicated to
"Mobile UniX systems" on laptops, PDAs, cell phones and more.
It leads you to a lot of useful hands-on information about installing
and running Linux and BSD on laptops, PDAs
and other mobile computer devices.
In June 2001 I have got a request from the German legal representative
of·
Les Editions Albert Rene (Paris) holder of the trademarks "Asterix" and
"Obelix" , to unregister the name MobiliX, otherwise
they would take legal action.
MobiliX is an acronym of the words "mobile" and "UniX". To avoid
any legal trouble with this name I have registered the name at
the German trademark register last year.
It is a common practice to build new names for Unix related topics from
a word naming the topic and adding the letters "iX" at the end. Some
examples are: AIX, Eurix (Comfood), Sinix (Siemens-Nixdorf), SkroBelix,
Skyrix, Ultrix, XenixThe German computer magazine iX is even just
named by these letters. The name Unix itself is a registered trademark
of AT&T, X/Open. Also the name Mobilix is already registered for a
German manufacturer of children furniture. I don't intend to make any
references to Asterix and Obelix on my web pages.
My lawyer has written these arguments to the legal representative of
Les Editions Albert Rene. But the laywer announced
to continue to take legal action.
Please mail me if you have any information about similar trademarks
or other means to help. I will also ask the Free Software Foundation -
FSF for assistance.
Werner Heuser wehe@mobilix.org
PS: You may find current information about this case at
http://mobilix.org/mobilix_asterix.html
--
|=| Werner Heuser = Keplerstr. 11A = D-10589 Berlin = Germany
|=| <wehe@mobilix.org> T. +49-30-3495386
|=| http://MobiliX.org Linux-Mobile-Guide
|=| http://Xtops.DE Laptops und PDAs mit Linux
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