

Flamers force lawyer to drop application for Bitcoin trademark - padrack
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/07/bitcoin-flamers-force-lawyer-to-drop-u-s-trademark-application-so-now-hes-trying-it-abroad/

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RexRollman
This reminds me of the asshole who tried to trademark Linux back in the day.
Jerks like these have always existed.

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Symmetry
Trademarks aren't like patents or copyrights, there isn't a strong presumption
of validity attached. Even if he should manage to get one he shouldn't be able
to much beyond send threatening letters (at least in the US).

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naner
Maybe some cheeky bitcoin user could trademark _Magellan Capital Advisors_ in
France, Italy, Spain, Japan and China.

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caf
This, and the story about modified versions of VLC being used to distribute
malware, seem to be timely illustrations of why Open Source projects should
file for and protect their names as trademarks.

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marshray
I like how he equates filing for IP ownership on something that was obviously
developed by others with a gainful venture under capitalism.

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citadrianne
I think it's fair to call it capitalism--he's obviously capitalizing. What's
debatable is how conscionable that is.

He would have done better to go to someone in the Bitcoin community and offer
his services. Someone should own the trademark to protect it. Lots of cc and
open source stuff has registered trademarks so the name can't be abused.

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marshray
Capitalism as an economic system means more than just that "people
capitalize". It encompasses things like competitive free markets and legal
systems to enforce contracts and discourage fraud.

Filing for IP protections on something that is not by any stretch of the
imagination your own IP sounds to me like some combination of fraud and
perjury.

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rcxdude
someone tried to do a similar thing for cyanogenmod. He tried to pass it off a
'protecting' the project in some way.

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scythe
Uh, would this paper count as "strong compelling evidence"?

<http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf>

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dctoedt
To serve as evidence, its date of publication would have to be established
with reasonable reliability. For a fee, The Wayback Machine will provide an
affidavit confirming that Document X was archived on their servers as of a
given date.[1]

[1] <http://www.archive.org/legal/faq.php>

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Jach
Alternatively you could just print it out and mail it to yourself with a seal
and never open it unless called for.

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Joakal
Poor man's copyright seems flawed [0]. Where's the basis for mailing it with a
seal having legal grounds?

[0]
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Poor_man%27s_...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Poor_man%27s_copyright#Flaws)

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Jach
I'm curious if there's any precedence in the courts. But as far as convincing
a judge or jury one way or another, it's some evidence that can help you out
in a "he said she said" case. Printed out emails are frequently used in civil
cases to help convince the judge of one thing or another, and they're quite
easily forged but that doesn't stop them from being considered.

Other methods include putting it in public dirs, pastebin, etc. and letting
the internet mirror it for free. Encrypt it if you must, torrent an encrypted
tarball if you've got name recognition..

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shareme
the problem is he used a Lawyer License form the USA to file a US trademark
which he knew at the time contained some false statements as he was fully
aware of the prior art of the trademark being claimed..

anyone know what state he was licensed in?

