Thanks, Tom. Very helpful.
Tom goes on to mention that the word Internet is itself a
registered mark and suggests that The Internet Company is in
violation of this mark.
When this issues was first raised, some three years ago,
(yes, I realize that Internet years are an awful lot like
dog years, so you can multiple the previous number by at
least a factor of 10 to get any sort of real-world feeling
about the time. Assuming that the timescale has increased
at a steady state for the last, say 4 years, that would make
me at the very least a septogenerian. And I still have all
my original teeth! But I digress..),
Vint Cerf (then Director of The Internet Society, now of V.P.
of Development for Internet-MCI), Bill Washburn (then Director
of the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX), now Director of
Internet Business Development for Mecklermedia), and I (then CEO
/ President of The Internet Company, now Chief Scientist of
same) spent some considerable effort to understand the
trademark issues surrounding the word: Internet.
At the time, we had found that the word Internet had been
trademarked some three or four years previously by an ATM
networking company in Colorado (I believe, I'd have to look up
my notes.) Please note: this is not Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) style Networking, this is Automated Teller Machine (ATM)
style Networking.
I believe this company is called "Internet, Inc." and is
publically traded on the NYSE. (It is interesting to note that
they have seen a tremendous increase in the value of their
stock in recent years, even though they have nothing to do with
the global Internet. Go figure!)
The word Internet has been in the public lexicon since the late
70's, when (then graduate student) Vint Cerf coined it. For
the record, there is little 'i' internet, refering to any
confluence of computer networks that share information with each
other via packets of data which are defined in publically
published protocols--most noteably the Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and big-I Internet, the
exemplar of this unique communications concept.
It was our opinion, and the opinion of the legal advice we
consulted on this issue, that the word Internet was so entrenched
in the public lexicon as to be un-enforceable as a trade or
service mark.
It appears that this opinion had some validity as we have never
been approached by the trademark holder regarding violation of
their mark. <sound of knuckles rapping insistantly on
faux-wood desktop>
Do I expect to be contacted on this issue in the future? No, I
really do not -- based upon what must now be the obvious problems
enforcing any trademark involving this word. Excuse me while I
Xerox this Kleenex, will you? ;)
Two years ago, the PTO stopped registering any claim which
included the magic 'I' word. I do not know, nor really care,
if they have started to register I-marks again as I have the
singular honor of starting a company whose name cannot be
trademarked. (It includes an article, a trademarked though
un-enforceable descriptor, and a generic word for a legally
recognized business entity.)
Besides, the brand will become the most important value any
business can possess in the future of this exciting new world of
instantaneous communications. The global Internet will cause
most businesses to become completely commoditized. If I can see
every supplier of a thing, contrast features and measure cost as
easily as boinking a Web button, what is it that differentiates
one business from another? Ask Frank Purdue, he sells chickens.
</rr> --who works for the magic-I company and holds, what
must be considered, the brand of the decade. <smile>
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