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Re: Free Debian logos? [was: Re: GUADEC report]



On Mon, Jul 19, 2004 at 12:15:31PM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> "General Electric" is two words; MS has lost that game before now too
> ("IBM Works" does not infringe "Microsoft Works"). Apple's probably
> lawyer-bait.

The important issue with trademarks is whether or not the word or phrase
has some generic use in context in question.

"Apple" in common use tends to refer to agriculture or eating, or stuff
like that, where in the context of computers there's no question that
it refers to a brand.  The other words you list: General, Electric,
and Works are only brand specific in our fields when used in phrases

On the other hand, for example, if APL was a bit more popular (instead
of a being dying language -- in part because ascii doesn't have the
characters it requires and unicode doesn't include any standard way for
a user to enter those characters), Apple might eventually have have to
give a little ground.

-- 
Raul



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