Re: ACS sues Google for trademark infringement

["David P. Dillard" <jwne@astro.ocis.temple.edu>]

The first reaction that I had to this particular litigation is that it
seems very comparable to the OCLC action against a New York City hotel and
its owners over the use of the Dewey Decimal system in the identification
of, I believe, hotel rooms.

The second issue of interest is the question of whether the use of one
normal English language word without any accompanying logo or art
constitutes an infringement of trademark or copyright.  If so, those
corporate entities that use the word corporation in their corporate
identification could be in violation of the first recorded user of this
word, not to mention incorporated or inc.  I am not a lawyer and this is
not legal advice. Just a couple of thoughts regarding this interesting
development.  One thing that I have heard over time is that Google as a
corporate entity is very good at handling litigation directed against
them.

Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@astro.temple.edu
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On Tue, 14 Dec 2004, Stevan Harnad wrote:

> Re:
> > the story on the Chemical and Engineering News site:
> > http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/8250/8250acs.html
> >
> > [and] today's online Chronicle of Higher Education, for those who have
> > a subscription.

> The American Chemical Society (ACS) should (and will) be ashamed of
> itself, forgetting it is a Scholarly Society and acting for all the
> world like just another corporate bottom-feeder, trying to squeeze the
> most revenue out of the leastmost commodity ("branding"). They might as
> well be peddling hog-bellies, or H2O rights in Bolivia.

> Fear not. The bottom line is not the scruple-free conduct of its
> handsomely paid executives and legal staff, but the ACS membership (and
> history itself), which will hold ACS accountable if it continues down
> this sociopathic path instead of doing what scholarly societies are
> meant to do.

> Meanwhile, it would be fun if the various other "X Scholar" entities
> took out a class action suit against ACS's "SciFinder Scholar"...

> Eligible candidates include:

>     American Scholar http://www.pbk.org/pubs/amscholar.htm
>     Black Scholar http://www.theblackscholar.org/
>     Zetetic Scholar http://tricksterbook.com/truzzi/ZeteticScholars.html

> Stevan Harnad
> harnad@uqam.ca