Name of front-end

[Victor Maurice Faubert]

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