To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: permaculture trademark alert
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 12:48:53 -0700
All,
I just got off the telephone with my trademark attorney (I run a
software company) and this is what he told me.
*****
"In order to claim a trademark on a term you MUST police the term to
make sure that no one is using it. Given that he has put it in
common use and not policed it for over 20 years, he has no claim to
it."
*****
Also, given that the attorney at the patent office has turned down
that application based on the fact that Permaculture is in the
dictionary, it is my opinion that we have nothing to worry about.
What's Mollison going to do, sue the 100's of thousands of people
that are using the word.