Linbot

[Tim Peters]

[posted & mailed]

[marduk]
> I have been forced to refrain from using the name "Linbot" from
> anything I'm associated with.  This was a result of a Cease and
> Desist from www.watchfire.com .  Their claim is that Linbot
> infringed upon their (pending) trademark on Linkbot.  As a "quick
> fix" I took down the web site and renamed the mailing list.
>
> I haven't decided yet what to do from there. ...

Talk to a lawyer <wink>.  Their trademark application for Linkbot is serial number
75627250 with the US Patent and Trademark Office.  You can go there:

    http://tarr.uspto.gov/

and enter the serial number to get current status.  The most recent item is dated
2000-03-18, and says "An office action making FINAL a refusal to register the mark has
been mailed".  However, the application is still marked as being alive.  In governmentese,
"final" only applies to tax bills <wink>.  Section 1105.04(g) (Proper Response to Final
Action [R-1]) of the PTO regulations:

    http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmep/1100.htm

says a few avenues of appeal are yet open to them, for a 6-month period after the final
refusal.  3+6 = 9, so that's this month.  My bet is they went after you to begin with just
to keep their diminishing trademark hopes alive.  The deadline is looming, so check back
in a month or so and see whether the application has been marked dead.  If so, and you're
in a different state and they haven't got the trademark at a state level either, the
lawyer you talk to may well say you're in the clear.

or-may-well-not-lawyers-are-baffling-ly y'rs  - tim