Articles

By: Ward Dossche
To: Philip Lozier
Dear Philip,

PL> Warren, you may publish this if you wish...

WD> This could be fun becoz' do I have some news for you ... ;-)

PL> Ward... not to start a flame fest here, but I do believe that Warren has sufficiently established that FidoNews was registered in the US by Tom Jennings, provided the registration information, and is working on establishing that any future editor of FidoNews has permission to utilize this trade mark as stated by Tom...

WD>Pressured a little bit by Janis Kracht who was pressured by Thom Lacoste who takes Warren Bonner's words for granted and neither of them checking any of the statements made by the other I went researching the matter myself.

WD> Here in Belgium I'm 3,900 nautical miles from Washington DC which puts me farther away from the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) than anyone in the continental USA yet it seems I'm the firstone who actually has taken the time to research their records.

WD> This is the result which I pass to you with a broad smile and a chuckle hoping that the Thom Lacostes, Warren Bonners and all the others who like to debate issues without knowing the facts read it.

WD> Mr. Warren Bonner cites little justification for his claims re: Fidonet- trademarks. He did not research USPTO-records which should have been his primary source of information. Had he done so he would have the information that would make him very silent on the issue.

WD> However ... I did the research and here follows the USPTO-story (United States Patent and Trademark Office):

WD> 1) There is a trace of a Fidonet-listing with the name of Tom Jennings 2) It was registered on Aug.18 1987 for a 6-year period 3) It was renewed on Aug.3 1993 for another 6 year period 4) The renewal for 6 years was registered on Dec.14 1993 5) No further action has been undertaken since which means the trademark expired on Dec.14 1999 and is up for grabs to anyone who wants to pay the required fees.

WD> Don't believe me? Contact the USPTO yourself.

General Information Services Division U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office Crystal Plaza 3, Room 2C02 Washington, DC 20231

By phone

800-786-9199 or 703-308-4357

WD> Further to that the "Dog with diskette" has never been registered with the USPTO at all.

WD> Based on all this I repeat my claim that each and every mention of Fidonet- trademarks and "Dog-with-diskette" style-things here, in nodelists, in Fidonews (without being limited in my summing-up) is completely irrelevant and other than taking-up space is absolutely unimportant.

At least I cannot be blamed for not having done my homework ...

I rest my case.

Nevertheless, a trademark-mention is present in zone-2's version of the world- nodelist. Of course, no-one ever cared to check that but those that would like to do so can access ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/zone2 and retrieve between 1 and 2 months worth of nodelists from zone-2 with the trademark-notice clear for all to see.

It seems before embarking on the warpath people need to learn to check the facts prior to mailing-out stuff which doesn't make sense. However, hadn't Warren Bonner and Thom Lacosta not done so I would've never contacted the USPTO. So maybe they did me a favor after all.

PL> FidoNews, according to this information, is the property of the current editor, and has nothing to do with any C structure whatsoever (Right up tou your IC slot)...

WD>The one currently assuming the role of editor has been appointed by the IC, not by the outgoing editor for reasons which we all know (I hope) and regret.

It is a universally accepted legal principle that the body which appoints a person can also recall him/her.

PL> the English translation is not unreasonable, as the > official language of "FidoNet" (not echoes) is English...

WD> With close to 40% of the nodes coming from Russia and another 45% being non- anglophile-based maybe it should be Russian ... ;-) <joke!>

LP> ... my voice has been known within my region to support the fact
> that any proposed changes made within Z1 in regards to major FidoNet
> matters MUST take the considerations of ALL zones into effect.

WD> Don't misunderstand me, but in a way this is amusing. It demonstrates you haven't yet understood the law of the numbers. Look at this my freind... you state that Z2 is 90% of FidoNet... ... well, it's 86% as a metter of fact with zone-1 occupying 9%. During the last 5 weeks zone-2 has lost 81 nodes, that is 0.77% of its capacity. Zone-1, during the same time frame, lost 90 nodes which is 8.47% of its capacity.

WD> What do I mean by that?

WD> Any discussion about trademarks, copyrights, "dogs with or without diskettes", the Fidonews-editor and more of these matters is useless.

WD>The real item to be discussed, but which most people avoid like the Plague, is what kind of future is still available in zone-1 with such a decrease which has been linear for a long while.

WD> At the current rate zone-1 expires in 47.2 weeks, that is January/February 2002. This will not happen 100%, of course, but in the end there will be a mere handfull of self-inflated Napoleons making lotsa noise but carrying little weight.

WD> So how can we keep a Fidonet-structure alive in zone-1 above and beyond some mailmovers who will be moving mainly zone-2 content.

\x/@rd

ED... Well Ward can't say he wasn't given full access to the Snooze!