🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.sys.next.misc, pyrros@braindamaged.cis.udel.edu (Christos T. Pyrros) writes:
>Cable-TV channel "The Discovery Channel" has a show called _nextstep_ running
>on Tuesday nights at 9:00 pm Eastern time.  The show is slightly similar to
>the show _Beyond 2000_.
>
>Has anyone else seen this show?

Yes. I thought it would be neat if they did a segment on NeXTSTEP.

>Isn't the word "nextstep" copyrighted by NeXT, Inc.?  (or whatever the
>appropriate legal term is...)

Trademark.  As far as I know, all you have to do to get a trademark status
is to use it commercially.  If you what to get it registered (so you can
put the r in a circle after your trademark, then you have to fill out some
paperwork.

And the only protection you get is that other companies in the same business
can't use the same trademark. (i.e. that can't do something that would make
thier customers think they were buying your product.)  The name of a T.V.
show would never be confused with a computer operating system, so there
is no problem with them using the nextstep name.

Curt Welch