Re: [Audacity-devel] Audacity DVR
A free multi-track audio editor and recorder
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From: Matt B. <mbr...@cs...> - 2003-11-18 16:58:34
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Daniel James wrote: > > A company called Audio Storage Technologies makes recording hardware > > and software for PDAs, with the brand "Audacity DVR" > > I strongly suggest that a representative of the development team > writes a polite but firm letter to this company. If you don't stop > this now, you could find that they will force you to change the name > of the original Audacity at some point in the future. Note: I'm not a lawyer, and my opinion is not legal advice. Under US law, we can claim ownership of the "Audacity" trademark even though we have not registered it. But without registering the mark, we can't collect damages or recover legal fees if it's infringed (we can only force the infringer to stop). Registration costs about $300 and may require a trademark attorney. I agree with Daniel that we may need to contact AST to avoid future conflict. Unfortunately we might not have the time or resources to force them to stop using the name if they don't want to. If we can protect our right to the name in a way that avoids conflict (e.g. AST acknowledges our ownership, and we license the mark under terms we both agree to), I think that might be better. Any thoughts? BitLaw and Cornell University have information about US trademark law: http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/ http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/trademark.html As far as I can tell, we have a very good claim to the "Audacity" trademark in the field of computers and electronics. Dominic is probably the trademark owner, since the "Audacity development team" is not a legal entity. |