> Centuries of experience for trademarks? I seem to recall it > being much younger than that. And abuse of such concepts has > increased exponentially over the past few decades.
If you visit Chester in the UK you can see buildings with guildmarks made before Columbus sailed. The first Trade Mark registry was established in the UK in 1875 but the common law tort of passing off is much older and remains in force today. Many of the guild marks were and are protected by specific royal charters that effectively grant a monopoly of use since usurping a coat of arms is an offense. In 1977 at the time of the Silver Jubilee a case of this type had to be hurriedly abandonded after a charge of 'usurping the royal coat of arms' was brought against a man for producing an unauthorized bedspread with the royal coat of arms. It was only after the charges were brought that the prosecutors discovered that this was a capital charge that had been overlooked in the bill eliminating the death penalty. Phill _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@ietf.org https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf