As patents are expensive and difficult to register at the best of
times why would you spend that kind of money to register something as
either a copyright or patent which is a not-for-profit undertaking.
Most patents are for processes or for tangible products--sometimes for
hybrid species or gene sequences or protein combinations. How would a
list fit into any of these categories? As for copyrights, how would
you limit what you already share with all of your members as a trade
mark? Neither case seems applicable to lists, although you could
register the name and a logo so that nobody else could use it, but
this is still a costly undertaking with no particular reward. You
would do better to save your money for something you want to really
patent like virtual reality viewing devices, optical architectures or
genetic sequences.
 
                        Best regards,
 
                        Paul.
--
 
Dr. Paul S. di Virgilio,  University of Toronto  [log in to unmask]