[ros-kernel] Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Legal...

[Andrew W. <an...@ds...>]

  This is way off topic, but..

  No, that was trademark, and I think they dropped the application.  In that
case they had a point though, every other major bike maker was coming out
with a big V-twin engined cycle to try and take some of the market from Harley.
That is what trademark is all about, protecting a business image and brand.  However,
I don't think anyone is going to argue that Harley was pushing the edge of
the envelope trying to protect their marketshare.  But trademark is very different
than copyright.  For trademark infringment the general rule is, is it a 
unique business "mark" and are consumers likely to be confused if that "mark"
starts showing up on a competitor's stuff.  For copyright, its was someone's
"original" work (as in new to this world) "copied".  As I understand it, the stuff 
in that work that is not new they generally don't have a huge claim to, as it is 
"old" or is considered a generally used technique. As ReactOS is not an
exact copy of NT I think MS is going to have some problems, much like AT&T/USL
(the owners of original Unix) did when the BSD4.4 code was released.

	--Andrew (another list lurker)
 
> This reminds me of a case where Harley Davidson tried to copyright the sound
> of their bikes.  I never knew what happen (did it go to court?  If so, what
> was the outcome?)  As if to say the sound was exactly the same on every bike
> produced and that it encourage awesome innovation to the point they needed
> to protect it saying it was from their custom engine designs bla bla bla.
> Its like saying Honda built their bike engines based on the sound that
> Harley's made?  As John Stossel would say, Give me a break.

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