From: Paul Robinson <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
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I think you can do a trademark registration for a lot less
than $2,000.  Federal Trademark Registrations cost $175 per
class registered.
 
You can sue for damages on a servicemark or trademark even
if it's not registered, but registration makes it easier to
create a prima-facie case.  Now, all you have to do is figure
out either (1) where some places that are using the Unix
listserv are located or (2) where that Greek guy is that
wrote the other program.
 
I'll discuss the issue of not making a profit, later.
 
But the point is, you might be able to get some mileage
out of the problem, at least in the U.S., at less cost, by
doing State Registrations.  These range from $10 to $50
depending on the state.
 
The United States operates under a system called "Dual
Sovereignity" which means we have parallel State Governments
and the Federal Government.  The most common example of this
was in the Los Angeles Police Beating Case, where four
policemen were tried for beating an armed robber for not
surrendering when they asked him to do so.  When three of the
four police officers were found not guilty in a state court,
there was severe rioting in Los Angeles for three days.  At
this point, the four officers, having been found not guilty
were tried a second time in *federal* court for "violating the
civil rights" of the individual in question.
 
Now, a trademark - like 'listserv' - can be registered with the
U.S. Federal Government, and it can be registered in any state
that the product has been sold, advertised or made available.
 
And sometimes you have to take a stand because you need to
protect your name against usurpers.  I was once doing a trademark
search at the U.S. Patent and Trademark office in Arlington,
Virginia.  One of the other people doing a search there,
mentioned that there is a company, Toro, which manufactures
lawnmowers and other gardening equipment.  He pointed out that
the Toro Company is *very* protective of its name.  They will
challenge any registration of anything at or near the word
"Toro" and they will litigate if they lose the challenge, e.g.
even if you were registering a brand of bullfighting costume,
they would fight a registration of it, even though it has
nothing to do with their product.  They've lost some cases and
won others, but they have essentially made it unlikely that
someone will register anything with that word in it, because
the trademark search firms will tell them that Toro will fight
and sue, and unless they are willing to spend the time in court
over it, to pick another word or phrase.
 
A while back I started using a particular tag at the end of my
messages, and claimed it as a servicemark.  The tag was special
and clearly significant, yet people said that posting opinions
wasn't a 'registrable service', and that a tag line wasn't
registrable as a servicmark.
 
Given that challenge, I decided to register the tag I used on
my messages, first with the Commonwealth of Virginia, and then
perhaps later, with the State of Maryland.  I filed a
registration with Virginia, which returned it saying it wasn't
registrable.  Well, I wrote back asking for an explanation as
to why, given that registration of marks is 'ministerial' in
nature, and that there has to be a legal reason for refusal,
e.g. that my mark matches someone else's, violates the law
(e.g. is obscene or immoral, etc.) or has some other condition
that gives grounds to refuse it.  Registration costs $30 in
Virginia, $10 in Maryland and are good for ten years.
 
I pointed out that the fact that I don't charge for my opinions
is irrelevant.  The Christian Science Church has registered its
seal which is a circle including the words "Heal the Sick and
Raise the Dead" and also has registered the signature of its
founder, Mary Baker Eddy.  That church runs a lot of services
which are free.
 
A filing with the State of Maryland raised the new objection of
"Geographic Reference" in that the mark I am using contained
a reference to a location; you can't have exclusive rights to
a mark containing a location reference, like "The New York
Times" if it had to file a new registration, can't claim
"New York" as a part of the mark anymore.
 
Well, the question is, what was my tag and was it accepted for
registration? The mark, a service mark for "Messages
Transmitted by Computer" is 6 lines long.  See for yourself:
 
 
Paul W Robinson, is "TDarcos ... The Standard of Immorality"  or
Tansin Arogan Darcos of the District of Columbia Territory of the USA
"Grind our enemies into the dust, and drown them in their own gore."
"Exploiting humanity since 1986."
"Above all else...We shall go on..."
_"...And continue!"_
 
     - Servicemark Registered
      Commonwealth of Virginia (USA), May 25, 1990;
      State of Maryland (USA),  August 16, 1991
 
---
Paul Robinson - [log in to unmask]
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Noise proves nothing.  Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as
if she had laid an asteroid.
                                        -- Mark Twain