Somewhat off topic with a little relevance to woodworking

[marc rosen]

(Slow night, too tired to work in the shop, so I'm mulling this over in public) What's in a name? Do you folks recall the lawsuit brought on by Sony Corporation against a woman named Sony who wanted to call her food shop by her same name? It makes me wonder about some of the names used in our circle here. "Delta" for example; There is Delta Airlines, Delta faucets, Delta truck bed tool boxes, and probably at least another half dozen I have never heard about. (And no, I have not taken any time to do any internet searches). Then there is Gorilla; Gorilla Glue and tape, Gorilla laders, Gorilla Dust collectors (from Oneida), and probably another bunch I don't know about. I'm not trying to get a discussion going against Sony but I do not recall any lawsuits brought against woodworking tool manufacturers because of name infringement. Any comments? Anybody else having a slow night? Marc

[Robatoy]

. . . . . Yes.

[Swingman]

No!!

;)

[Robatoy]

I guess at 100MPH, it would be a fast night...=3Do)

[Lew Hodgett]

Not with a major train wreck between a freight and a passenger train about 3-4 hours ago here in SoCal.

May be as many as 350 people on the train.

Of that, estimated as many as 250 injured.

There have been several deaths, the mayor is indicating 10-15 after a briefing.

It is a slow process getting people out of the train(s).

Stay tuned......................

Lew

[Robatoy]

On Sep 12, 9:38=A0pm, marc rosen wrote: [snipped as brevitization method]

Meet my new friends:

about a bunch of enthusiastic people. They actually had me working on my own machine. That was very helpful for a CNC greenhorn like me. I have the software side pretty much handled to the point where I am no longer intimidated by it. Got to set my proximity switches, tested the feed-back positioning, got know the VFD a bit more and found out that I am really tempted to go for a tool changer... but, one step at the time (That was a CNC pun..) whole business feels like the days when I was 5 years old, just before my birthday or Christmas... very exciting.

r

[Swingman]

I'm excited just reading about it ... you and Morris keep this place interesting with new technology.

[Robatoy]

I had the pleasure to spend 12 hours (over the course of 4 nights) with a variety of people. There were as many applications as there were people. Guitar bodies, signs, cabinets, corbels, and one with a lathe built in.. fluted columns with rope twists and one guy was cutting dovetails. And I bought the thing with sink-cutouts in mind...as if...well.. it's my story and I'm sticking to it.. this is very serious business and I shall have no fun! (Angela might be reading this) =3D0}

[Lee Michaels]

"Robatoy" wrote

There were as many applications as there were people. Guitar bodies, signs, cabinets, corbels, and one with a lathe built in.. fluted columns with rope twists and one guy was cutting dovetails. And I bought the thing with sink-cutouts in mind...as if...well.. it's my story and I'm sticking to it.. this is very serious business and I shall have no fun! (Angela might be reading this) =0}

One thing seems apparent to me. You will have little scraps left.

Fire up that CNC and make all kinds of things out of whatever is lying around.

[Morris Dovey]

Exactly the way it should feel - congratulations!

[Phil Again]

As I recall, you cannot trademark a common word, name, or phrase for commercial use: Sunny or Sonny, Delta (Engineering books use the inverted triangle, called delta from the Greek alphabet, as a mathematical symbol,) and so on. Sonya's foods can be used, but remove the 'a' and you are in trouble; same with Son-Yee's. Sony is not spoken in USA as anything but the electronics's company, it has no other meaning. Malibu has a meaning for a city in California, Toyota not.

A trademark name must be unique: not part of spoken language, and have unique spelling and pronunciation.

Once, about 25 years ago, I wanted to start a part-time business on the side. Talked to a lawyer, the thing is, he told me, was getting customer's to write a check to you, and only you can deposit the check in a bank. Pick a business name that identifies you and your business plus is unique to your local market. You can file for a tradename registration to insure your business name is unique within your State, but trust me registering a business name only lets the state business tax collectors find you. Many just stick with just first or last name and the type of business.

A person with the name of Sony, pronounced as the electronics company, is not usual (common) in USA. From you posting, I suspect the electronics's company has been granted a trademark for the trade-name of Sony, as we normally pronounce the word. If her name is pronounced as "sunny", she could change the spelling for the business trade-name. The electronics company cannot force her to change her birth certificate, nor her driver's license; personal information not part of a business.

[Frank Boettcher]

I think it has to do with whether the name is already in the public domain, if so, it cannot be exclusively trademarked. You can add to it and use it as your company name and protect that (Delta Machinery, Delta Airlines, Delta Faucet), but Delta remains available in the public domain.

IIRC there is a Delta Machinery in California, non competing. Delta, prior to the B & D purchase, was actually Delta International Machinery.

Frank

[mac davis]

3 that come to mind:

A small flower shop in the mid-west named "This bud's for you", sued by Budweiser..

A friend that had a jeep related web site and domain name that was threatened with a suit by Cry-co is he didn't stop using it and the word jeep (Jeep) I think his domain name is "7 slot grill" or something now..

The MTV DJ that registered MTV.com and sat on it until MTV made him an off that he couldn't refuse..

OH! Just remembered another one that pissed me off... Someone got the domain name of ABC.com in the early 90's and American Broadcasting Company sued to get it themselves..and I think they won.. It seemed weird at the time, as I was a minor official in the American Bowling Congress.. lol

Unfortunately, macdavis.com was taken long ago..

mac

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[mac davis]

Ahhh.... I was wondering about that! We were doing our karaoke gig last night and I kept seeing pictures of flashing lights and emergency vehicles on the TV in the bar and something about Chatsworth, but we couldn't tell what was up... What we thought was a picture of a semi trailer on it's side must have been a railroad car..

mac

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[David G. Nagel]

Years ago Sears Roebuck and Co. sued a drycleaner for name infringement. The drycleaner was operating under the name SEARS Drycleaners. SR felt that this was going to be confusing to their customers and might lead them to think that SR was in the laundry business. Well the Court listened to the arguments and ruled that there was no possibility of confusion between SR and SD. Besides as one of the drycleaner lawyers later said: "We still have a Sears working for the business!".

Dave N

[Lee Michaels]

"mac davis" wrote

There is more than one of you?

That is a scary thought. ;-)

[Lew Hodgett]

It happened near the Chatsworth station.

What you saw were Metrolink passenger cars that were on their sides.

Last night they brought in the search and rescue dogs to make sure they found everybody who was still alive.

Lew

[Robatoy]

Rick M and Steve Knight are pretty serious about this stuff too. Morris writes code at machine level..I'll never go there. I feel dumb enough as it is, without knowing things like 24352525fsf multiplied by dgd65476bgd64 makes a decattrahydonomaleous quadrant... if you know what I mean.. *smirks*

May all our days be f22

[Morris Dovey]

Smartass. Never say never.

:-D

[mac davis]

Be VERY frightened.. lol

Yeah, some obscure country singer got the domain name first..

mac

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