Re: Verio applies for trademark on the term "whois" (fwd)

[Joe Shaw <jshaw () insync net>]

On Thu, 3 Feb 2000 bmanning () vacation karoshi com wrote:

> > Word Mark           WHOIS
> > Owner Name          (APPLICANT) Verio Inc.
> > Owner Address       8005 S. Chester St., Suite 200 Englewood COLORADO 80112
> >                     CORPORATION DELAWARE
> > Attorney of Record  GLEN K. BEATON
> > Serial Number       75-742043
> > Filing Date         07/01/1999
> > Mark Drawing Code   (1) TYPED DRAWING
> > Register            PRINCIPAL
> > Type of Mark        SERVICE MARK
> >
> > International Class 042
> >
> > Goods and Services
> >
> > Computer services, namely, providing a computer database in the field of
> > personal and commercial address and telephone directory information and
> > other directory resources available on global information networks and
> > providing search services in connection therewith; DATE OF FIRST USE:
> > 1997.03.15; DATE OF FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 1997.03.15

I wonder what Stan Barber has to say about this, since he's Director of
Technical Operations at Verio.  It seems rather foolish to try and
register it as a trademark since whois servers have been around much
longer than 3.15.1997, and certainly used in commercial activities when
NetSol started charging for domain registrations well before then.  As far
as I can tell, WHOIS first appears back in RFC812 from March 1, 1982, and
is defined again in RFC954 in 1985.

I've taken the liberty of cc'ing Stan, since I'm not sure if he still
participates on NANOG or not.  Hopefully this is just a silly mistake of
some sort and won't smack of the Linux trademark case.

--
Joseph W. Shaw - jshaw () insync net
Computer Security Consultant and Programmer   
Free UNIX advocate - "I hack, therefore I am."