3 ms·

Adblock would not be a trademarkable name anyway. It's a generic term that describes what the product is.

by caskance 11y ago

runako 11y ago
Don't tell Microsoft! (Windows, Word, Surface, etc.) Or Apple! (Pages, Numbers, etc.)
- caskance 11y ago
  You might have a point if those products had been called "Operating System", "Text Editor" and "Portable Computer With Touchscreen and Keyboard".
  - runako 11y ago
    On a technicality (which is what trademark attorneys deal in), your point falls to the same fallacy. The product Adblock is an "Advertisement blocking engine" or the like. "Adblock" is a made-up word and therefore likely eligible for trademark. (Or it was before the namespace got polluted with all the variants.)
    - Dylan16807 11y ago
      "made up word" is overly generous. It's the word "ad" followed by the word "block". "ad block" is a valid description of what it does, equivalent to "advertisement blocking". You only put the word "engine" in there to fake there being a difference. Microsoft wouldn't be able to get a trademark on "Operatingsystem".
- kazinator 11y ago
  "Microsoft Word" is the trademark, not "Word". Or is it? If Microsoft has trademarked just "Word", it is very strange that they don't enforce it against these folks: http://www.abiword.org/ http://www.abiword.org/ especially in the light of how, some years ago, their lawyers swooped down like hawks on a Canadian named Mike Rowe who put up a "Mike Rowe Soft" consulting business and web site.
  - runako 11y ago
    "AbiWord" is a single word, which may be a factor. They might have trouble if it were "Abi Word" or "Word by Abi" or even "Word". It's implausible that another entity could market a competitor of Word (or Windows) by naming it e.g. "Apple Word" or "Apple Windows". I'm going to bet that all the common permutations are trademarked by MSFT. Also, I'm guessing Abi's limited reach is a factor. If Abi was suddenly taking a meaningful share of usage, they would probably get an angry lawyer letter.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]

Adblock would not be a trademarkable name anyway. It's a generic term that describes what the product is.

runako 11y ago

Don't tell Microsoft! (Windows, Word, Surface, etc.) Or Apple! (Pages, Numbers, etc.)

caskance 11y ago
You might have a point if those products had been called "Operating System", "Text Editor" and "Portable Computer With Touchscreen and Keyboard".
- runako 11y ago
  On a technicality (which is what trademark attorneys deal in), your point falls to the same fallacy. The product Adblock is an "Advertisement blocking engine" or the like. "Adblock" is a made-up word and therefore likely eligible for trademark. (Or it was before the namespace got polluted with all the variants.)
  - Dylan16807 11y ago
    "made up word" is overly generous. It's the word "ad" followed by the word "block". "ad block" is a valid description of what it does, equivalent to "advertisement blocking". You only put the word "engine" in there to fake there being a difference. Microsoft wouldn't be able to get a trademark on "Operatingsystem".
kazinator 11y ago
"Microsoft Word" is the trademark, not "Word". Or is it? If Microsoft has trademarked just "Word", it is very strange that they don't enforce it against these folks: http://www.abiword.org/ http://www.abiword.org/ especially in the light of how, some years ago, their lawyers swooped down like hawks on a Canadian named Mike Rowe who put up a "Mike Rowe Soft" consulting business and web site.
- runako 11y ago
  "AbiWord" is a single word, which may be a factor. They might have trouble if it were "Abi Word" or "Word by Abi" or even "Word". It's implausible that another entity could market a competitor of Word (or Windows) by naming it e.g. "Apple Word" or "Apple Windows". I'm going to bet that all the common permutations are trademarked by MSFT. Also, I'm guessing Abi's limited reach is a factor. If Abi was suddenly taking a meaningful share of usage, they would probably get an angry lawyer letter.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]