Re: [Audacity-devel] Finding a lawyer

[Dominic M. <do...@au...>]

OK, I'll probably draft a letter to Eben in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, I've run across two helpful resources online:

1. At http://www.uspto.gov/ you can search for registered trademarks;
    there are a few under the name Audacity, but none that covers a
    software program.

2. http://nolo.com is a great resource for legal information, and they
    have an entire section on Trademarks & Copyrights; just click the
    link on the left column.  It definitely answered some of my
    questions.  One factoid is that it will take at least a year to
    get a trademark officially registered.  However, the information
    on this site seems to imply that while registering your trademark
    is helpful, you still have lots of legal protection without it,
    especially if you were the first one to be using the mark.

- Dominic

Joshua Haberman wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 07:51, Dominic Mazzoni wrote:
> 
>>Here are some options for finding a lawyer.  Please let me know
>>which options you'd be comfortable with, and add any additional
>>ideas or thoughts.
>>
>>1. Eben Moglen of the FSF.  Pros: experienced, already an advocate
>>    of free software, may be willing to work for free.  Cons: possibly
>>    aligned with philosophical camp that does not favor working with
>>    non-free software at all.
> 
> 
> I don't see a problem approaching the FSF for legal advice.  I don't
> think there's really anything to lose, I don't think we have any
> differences that would affect this particular issue.
> 
> 
>>5. Hire a lawyer with experience in trademark law.  We ought to be
>>    able to find someone who will give us free advice and will charge
>>    a reasonable rate for any actual work (preparing letters,
>>    trademark application, etc.)
> 
> 
> I think this would be a good second choice if
> 
> - Eben won't help us
> - Eben will give us advice but we need further work he can't/won't
> provide
> - We want a second opinion
> 
> So I'd say contact Eben first and see where that takes us.  The other
> options don't seem like the right choice for a situation that needs to
> be handled correctly the first time.
> 
> Josh
> 
> 
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