Several Ringlink webring system owners:
> received an email today from Webring.com, telling me that I cannot
use the "word" webring in the name of my ring.
An opinion:
Registering the word "webring" as a trademark is an appropriate move for
webring.org to make, however late. Give them an A for effort. Fifteen
years ago, Sage Weil et al, may have succeeded.
Registering a trademark and enforcing it are two different things.
Webring is currently attempting to intimidate current "trademark" users
to honour their claim, and change their usage. If enough current users
recognise their claim to this word, they will have made some progress.
Eventually they will have to confront the remaining current users in
court. That is definitely not in their budget.
I wonder what the owner of "The Original Webring" is doing about this.
For well over a decade this word has become accepted public usage
worldwide. Making this claim stick today is sheer wishful thinking.
Shall we trademark the word "supermarket," "grocery," "internet..?
Could we be lucky? Webring.org will never succeed.
Yours,
Dave Kay