"Beowulf" trademarked ???

[Joel Jaeggli]

There is considerable precident established in trademark rulings about
so-called generic marks, ie marks that are sufficiently long established
and in wide-use by a number of individuals cannot be "aquired" by one
individual.

The legendary exploits of a 6th century danish hero composed orally in the
700's and commiteed to paper in about AD 1000 (Cotton Vitellius A XV) and
reprinted continously since 1815 should be immune to misguided attempts to
trademark it.

joelja

On Wed, 16 Jun 1999, Lechner, David wrote:

> Can someone say who has trademarked the name of a saga/novel/poem
> transcribed by monks in the 16th century and predating that in oral
> tradition by several centuries more?
> What are the "simple criteria", and is there a web-site somewhere on this?
> I checked  www.beowulf.org and didn't see this there - 
> R/ Dave Lechner
> 
> > ----------
> > From: 	Greg Lindahl[SMTP:lindahl@cs.virginia.edu]
> > Sent: 	Tuesday, June 15, 1999 6:35 PM
> > To: 	ronelson@vt.edu
> > Cc: 	beowulf@beowulf.gsfc.nasa.gov
> > Subject: 	Re: CNET -- How to build a supercomputer at home
> > 
> > > > Many people report to have been frustated with this CD, which  
> > > > in the end is counterproductive as well for Linux as for Beowulf.
> > > 
> > > Does RH own the rights to the name, or can someone else pick up the
> > slack and
> > > make an Extreme linux 2.2.10 version, or at least a *different* more
> > recent
> > > version.
> > 
> > The CD was called Extreme.Linux (note the dot)
> > 
> > "Extreme Linux" is a trademark owned by Linux International, and can
> > be used by anyone who meets a few simple criteria. The same is true
> > for "Beowulf" (different owner, but again a few simple criteria).
> > 
> > Don Becker is releasing a new Extreme.Linux CD at some point. But
> > anyone else can release an "Extreme Linux" CD.
> > 
> > -- g
> > 
> 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Joel Jaeggli				       joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu    
Academic User Services			     consult@gladstone.uoregon.edu
     PGP Key Fingerprint: 1DE9 8FCA 51FB 4195 B42A 9C32 A30D 121E
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is clear that the arm of criticism cannot replace the criticism of
arms.  Karl Marx -- Introduction to the critique of Hegel's Philosophy of
the right, 1843.