permaculture

["Rex Teague" <DibbleGardens@bigfoot.com>]

Greetings from New Zealand

On 16 Jul 01, Scott Pittman wrote:  and I've heavily snipped... 

> My thoughts when I applied for the trademark were: Alarm that the
> word permaculture was open for anyone to use and therefore my
> livelihood as a designer and teacher was imperiled;  Anger that
> Bill had told students around the world that the word was
> protected and for their exclusive use, once certified, and that in
> fact the protection was non-existent; Responsibility for the many
> students that I have taught and to which I had parroted Bill's
> statement that the word was exclusive to all graduates of the
> certification course. 

That has always been my understanding too. As someone who has 
been aware of Permaculture from the beginning, a longtime member 
of PINZ but not a Permaculture graduate, I've never referred to 
myself as a Permaculturalist in diffidence to that understanding.

> As I said in an earlier dispatch I have until August 27 to appeal
> the decision of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to
> withhold the trademark on permaculture.  Is that trademark useful
> to the graduates?; should we all join in this appeal, or should it
> be dropped and we take our chances that the unprotected word will
> not be usurped by bottom feeders? 

There has been tremendous consternation in North American BD 
circles about the registration (trademarking?) of the word 
'Biodynamic'. It maybe informative to peruse the heated discussion 
on the BDNow List, archived at http://csf.colorado.edu/archive 
and/or contacting some of the leading lights there.

To see a parallel performance since joining this List recently is 
disconcerting and I'm trying to distill a pattern. History does repeat, 
Nero fiddled whilst Rome burnt... apparently!

HTH... Rex