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It is the two-thousand-year old word for “road”, and an English preposition. Anyone who picked it as a trademark for anything knew what they were getting thems
by bratawurst 7y ago
It is the two-thousand-year old word for “road”, and an English preposition.
Anyone who picked it as a trademark for anything knew what they were getting themselves into.
- positr0n 7y agoThat's not how trademark law works though. Just because apples are a common, 20 million year old fruit doesn't mean Apple can't trademark the brand Apple in relation to computers and personal electronics.
- dumbfoundded 7y agoTrademarks matter in context a lot. An Apple branded computer is a lot stronger than an Apple branded apple. They choose a brand name bordering on descriptive. If it's descriptive, ie "Great Computer Co.", it's pretty weak. It'll be tough to own "Via" for anything in transportation.
- samatman 7y agoThat would be like owning the trademark "General Electric" and selling electrical equipment...
- ska 7y ago... which is why you never see any other companies with "electric" or "electronics" in their name.
- titanomachy 7y agoInternational Business Machines General Electric General Motors Advanced Micro Devices To be fair, all were among the first companies to make the thing they are named for.
- dumbfoundded 7y agoWell, General Electric predates many of the Supreme Court rulings that establish American trademark law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_trademark_case_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_...
- fullshark 7y agoWhat a funny example to pick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer. Apple got sued for basically exactly that because another company already had that trademark!