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On dongles, teletext and trade marks ...

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

The IPKat always enjoys reading the musings of his friends. That is why he was so pleased to receive this little piece, from a trade mark attorney who prefers anonymity for the sake of her good name and unblemished reputation:

"Flicking through the Chambers Dictionary of 1994 in an idle moment, I came upon "dongle" defined as "a device plugged into a computer which prevents the unauthorised use of software on a different machine". Coincidentally, I came across UK Trade Mark Registration 2375017 (filed October 2004) for DONGLE (word) for such goods as "computers sold complete" and such services as "remote data access services".

I also, in this Dictionary, came across a long definition of "teletext" beginning "a computer-based information-retrieval system" and, coincidentally, UK Trade Mark Registration 2343221 (filed September 2003) for TELETEXT (word) for such goods as "data and information provided on-line or on-screen in downloadable form" and such services as "transmission of information including broadcasting of text pages".

I'm a little uncomfortable at words I could have used (say) ten years ago without a thought of trade mark infringement being appropriated by businesses in this way: am I alone?"

Come on, readers, tell Sally if she's alone! If you have any other classic examples of once bland, ordinary descriptive or generic terms turning into trade marks that are close to the original meaning of those terms, just post them as comments below.

Full post as published by IPKat on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).