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It’s not, it’s a generic term. This is the M270 system which was developed in the 1970s and 1980s to meet the US Army’s Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) re
by _djo_ 5y ago
It’s not, it’s a generic term.
This is the M270 system which was developed in the 1970s and 1980s to meet the US Army’s Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) requirement. It was just a way of naming the requirement, kind of like “JSF”, and it stuck.
At the time rocket launchers were most commonly referred to as Multiple Rocket Launchers (MRL) and were mostly simple truck-based variants.
However MLRS had been used to refer to the capability by others in the past and it was never trademarked or limited to the US requirement and the M270. Over time it became common to refer to any modern integrated multiple rocket launcher as an MLRS, leaving the MRL naming only for less sophisticated types.
- mgdlbp 5y agoI thought so as well! 'MLRS is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin Corporation.' https://trademarks.justia.com/759/79/mlrs-75979459.html https://trademarks.justia.com/759/79/mlrs-75979459.html But for some reason as trademark class 28, toys and sporting goods, with the statement 'toys, namely scale models of military vehicles'. After some searching: apparently, they mean this: https://www.brickmania.com/mlrs-multiple-launch-rocket-system/ https://www.brickmania.com/mlrs-multiple-launch-rocket-syste... Trademarks only apply to their registered class—did they seriously trademark the term just to limit who could sell toys named with it?
- _djo_ 5y agoHuh, well I stand corrected. That is quite a bizarre trademark and I didn't expect it.
- mgdlbp 5y agoAh, they do also have trademarks for the military use and for the full phrase, just realized I stopped searching when I found the first one. https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=mlrs https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=mlrs https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=multiple+launch+rocket+system https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=multiple+launch+rocke...
- _djo_ 5y agoThanks for this, again I stand corrected. I'm amazed that they were granted those trademarks. As I said, MLRS has become a very generic term and from the start it was a US Army name, not invented by Lockheed-Martin.