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Re: Name of front-end
- From: Victor Maurice Faubert <vicmf at pop3 dot concentric dot net>
- To: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 09:03:47 -0500
- Subject: Re: Name of front-end
- References: <1070947232.17483.ezmlm@gcc.gnu.org>
At 05:20 +0000 2003.12.09, gcc-digest-help@gcc.gnu.org wrote:
From: Daniel Berlin <dberlin@dberlin.org>
Subject: Re: Name of front-end
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 18:59:36 -0500
To: Robert Dewar <dewar@gnat.com>
On Dec 8, 2003, at 6:31 PM, Robert Dewar wrote:
Andrew Haley wrote:
Robert Dewar writes:
> If you google on PL/I you will find zillions of references from third
> parties with no hint of a trademark, so I think you can safetly talk
> about GNU PL/1 without worrying!
Trademark law is complex, I strongly advise against anyone giving
amateur legal opinions in this area :-)
Umm, I don't think you need a lawyer to tell you that it a name is
not trademarked, then using it will not be a trademark infringement :-)
Remember, just because it's not a *registered* trademark, doesn't
make it not a trademark. You simply have to use it in trade for it
to be a trademark. Though of course, registration gives you
benefits. In the US, anyway.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/basic/register.htm
(The PTO, BTW, has the most worthless website on the planet. They
made it look nicer recently, but didn't make any information easier
to access. Zen and the art of redesigning government websites, i
guess).
I'm not a lawyer, but I'd point out that an ANSI standard for PL/I exists
(ANSI X3.53-1976) and that non-IBM compilers for the language exist(ed),
e.g., VAX. IBM contributed to the ANSI standard which, from a quick
skimming of its introductory text, contains no information that the name
is trademarked or is used with IBM's approval. That prior practice would
indicate that PL/I is in the public domain as the name of programming
language.
--
Vic