Re: [ot?]Trademark Alpha

From: Don Sykes (paladin_at_mydomain.com)
Date: 03/30/04 

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 19:59:39 GMT

JF Mezei wrote:

> Don Sykes wrote:
>
>>business papers - DBA: "Alpha Software Engineering".
>
>
>>attorneys representing "Alpha Software, Inc." charging me with Trademark
>>Infringement. They are insisting I give up BOTH names as well as my
>>domain name!
>
>
> They claim that they have been in business for 20 years according to their web
> site. I strongly suspect that they haven't been operating under that name for
> that long.
>
> I remember when Digital renamed the "beta" name "Alpha" to "AXP" supposedly
> due to legal problems, only to adopt "Alpha" officially a few years later. You
> might want to get some background history from ex-Decies about that.

Good idea.

>
> If Digital had struck some deal with these guys to finally get the right to
> use Alpha, you could argue that since your use of Alpha was under the umbrella
> of Digital, that your use was also covered by same agreement.

That's also possible, but as lawyers charge ~$300 US/hr, I hope I can
avoid that level of detail. Such discovery could take t$i$m$e$.

>
> You might also want to contact Alpha Processor Inc to find out if they had
> problems with these guys.

As these guys appear to be mostly hardware, the foe might argue that
there was no conflict there.

>
> These guys seem to be just some wintel crap software. You could argue that
> your trademark not only does not interfere with your market, but that you have
> greater "right" to use that name because your business relies on Digital
> technologies and Digotal has a bona fide trademarks "Alpha" which Digital gave
> you permission to use.

Again, if I were a big company with $$$ and a legal team this could be a
good approach. But it's just me and my own good cents ;) 

-- 
Have VMS, Will Travel
Wire paladin, San Francisco
(paladinATalphaseDOTcom)

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [ot?]Trademark Alpha
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  • Re: [ot?]Trademark Alpha
    ... due to legal problems, only to adopt "Alpha" officially a few years later. ... you could argue that since your use of Alpha was under the umbrella ... technologies and Digotal has a bona fide trademarks "Alpha" which Digital gave ...
    (comp.os.vms)