Re: Conlang legal protection (WAS: Conlang music)

----- Original Message ----
So, in fact, Pat Riley did coin a word--a neologism--and now
apparently collects royalties *any time* that word is used on
merchandise (he trademarked it).  If this happened, just what
prevents a language creator from coining every single word
in their dictionary?
-David

It's very important to distinguish "trademark" from "copyright."

The above quote is from a post copyrighted by you, by virtue of you having made
it public on this list. You're protected under copyright law. You pay nothing.
If you want some additional protections, you can file it with the USPTO, but
for basic protection, it's automatic upon publication. But you can't copyright
a single word; Pat Riley could *trademark* "Three-Peat," but he couldn't
copyright it.

To formally trademark something, there's a lengthy and costly process, enough
that a lot of the trademarks that companies claim aren't actually fully legally
protected. When you see a (R) after a term, that means that someone has gone
through the process and had it approved by the USPTO; when you see a TM, that
means (or is supposed to mean) that the company feels it's a unique label, but
for whatever reason doesn't want to go through the process (or has and the
USPTO has turned them down). Trademarks can also have industry scope, and
generally do: Apple Computers made an agreement (which they later violated, and
successfully modified) with Apple Records that they could use "Apple" as long
as they stayed out of the music industry (that changed with the iPod). And even
registered trademark rights can be partially or fully lost if the holder
practices insufficient diligence; see "Kleenex" and "Xerox."

Part of the trademark application process includes a period of time where other
people can challenge the right to a trademark. Apparently, that's what happened
with digg.com: LucasArts filed a complaint on the grounds that they had a
pre-existing computer game (albeit an unsuccessful one) called The Dig, which
therefore represents an industry overlap with the website. Since the LucasArts
game comes first, it's up to the USPTO to decide if there truly is an industry
overlap.

Theoretically, there's nothing preventing me from filing a trademark application on every
single word in a conlang lexicon. I would succeed for every word that truly is
original. I'm sure such an act would make some trademark lawyers very happy
with healthy bank accounts for a long time, though. :)

-- Paul

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