Re: ACS sues Google for trademark infringement

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Perhaps Stevan Harnad can clarify his post, in which he objected to the
legal action by the American Chemical Society to protect its trademark in
"Scifinder Scholar."  If I understand the post, and I hope I do not, it is
the single most radical statement concerning intellectual property I have
ever seen and goes far beyond author self-archiving, "information wants to
be free," or growing skepticism about patents.

There are two issues here:  Whether the word "Scholar" can be trademarked
and whether ACS should try to "squeeze the most revenue out of the
leastmost commodity ('branding')."  On the first point, I agree with
Harnad that ACS's position appears to be absurd on its face (as far as I
know, no one is infringing on the Scifinder trademark).

But on the second?  Are we really suggesting that organizations should not
be protecting their brands, their identities?  What is the meaure of
authenticity if not a trademark?

Contra the Chaire de recherche du Canada, the ACS is not a scholarly
society but a professional society, though I am surprised that Harnad can
speak for all such societies.  I would have thought that, say, Harvard,
would assert its trademark rights to the death, as would John Grisham or
the AAUP.  Taking inspiration from Harnad's post, I am going to run out
right now and arrange to publish the Johns Hopkins School of Medicines'
Guide to Alternative Health, Rare Herbs, and Incantatiions.

The ACS has chosen a bad example to defend a good principle.

Joe Esposito


On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 16:58:06 EST, Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

> > 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
> Chaire de recherche du Canada
> Centre de neuroscience de la cognition (CNC)
> Universit� du Qu�bec � Montr�al
> Montr�al, Qu�bec,  Canada  H3C 3P8
> harnad@uqam.ca
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/