On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 01:27:26PM -0400, Dean Anderson wrote:
BIND is an acronym of Berkeley Internet Name Daemon. I've heard that Vixie claims a trademark on this, but it seems rather like the linux trademark issue of a few years ago. I didn't hear that they purchased the copyright from the University of California. So, I don't think it is his to trademark, and it was a common term in use well before ISC existed. ISC didn't write BIND, but has only maintained and modified it over the years. They own modifications, at most.
But even if they did purchase the copyright from Berkeley, we are talking about what amounts to packet signatures. Fair use allows one to create interoperable products. [DMCA 1201(f), I think].
You can't "purchase a copyright" to a trademark, Dean. If someone already *holds* a trademark -- something one gets by *activity of commerce*, you can purchase a *license* to use it. So yes, arguably, ISC could hold a trademark on "BIND", if they chose to enforce it; the other usages of it were not *in commerce*. The people *using* it previously would probably be construed to hold a licence by easement, since they were already using it (albeit not in commerce), but IANAIPL. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth jra@baylink.com Designer Baylink RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates The Things I Think '87 e24 St Petersburg FL USA http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274 If you can read this... thank a system administrator. Or two. --me