Just to clarify on my earlier point...
I was attempting to make a point NOT about trademarks but about how funny it is that a leadership retreat would 'novely' do something we work on as standard faire. I was not literal in that we should rent our shops to corporate groups, but instead suggest that we should be proud that the way we operate is being emulated for biz world interpersonal education. I feel that since collective working skills seem to be valued as a mainstream workplace tool, we should be even more proud of the experience our shop provides to our volunteers. Kids we work with and who work with us are getting workplace experience corporate groups have to pay up the nose for.
Attacking my point as corporate sellout-ish feels offensive to me, and inappropriate to post anonymously (undercovercop?) on this list serve.
As for protecting ourselves and shop names from potential lawsuit or wrongful taking for private interest use, I strongly recommend registering your 'Fictitious Business name' ( I don't know why they call it that, but..). This can be done inexpensively (like $50) with your local state government, and having this gives your group control of the name and protection from future misuse or evidence that you didn't infringe someone else's trademark if someone is suing or trying to make you change your name. Doing this for terms we use, like Youth Earn-A-Bike might be excessive, but retaining old brochures and literature is indeed a great idea to protect those terms.
I'll try to write out Fictitious Biz name registering on the wiki.
Ed
Bici Centro
On 1/13/08, An Undercover Cop <
undercovercop@riseup.net> wrote:-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Edward France wrote:
| Interesting. It seems that the trademark may be on the full 'Build-A-Bike
| Workshop' phrase instead of just ending at the word bike. It seems like
| repairing old bikes as a team gives team building and leadership
skills - as
| that's what the 'Leadership Instituite' is apparently selling with their
| Build-A-Bike workshop.
ianal, but as i understand the doctrine of "previous art," you just
can't do that. or rather, you can go ahead and register it all you
want, but the fact that we've been using it for years--with *lots* of
documentation--as well as the fact that we're not competing with them,
renders their claim pretty useless.
| Maybe we could rent out our shops to corporate retreat groups, they could
| just take over our collective decision making roles for a weekend. Or
maybe
| we can just advertise to all our volunteers that they are gaining critical
| corporate team building and problem solving experience.
phaw. they're corporations that can afford staff team-building
retreats. they don't need *my* shop, and my shop don't need their money.
| Another outreach tool!
i guess, but who are you reaching out to, and to what end?
- -bB
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFHiqNfSfGaTCxqHXERAt+qAJ96K1OEgRPBd7V/sUekK1+Afij8wgCeL4q5
zOZmxGYOTd/hHvm9q7Iy8jA=
=8l8e
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org