[hpsdr] Name clash ?

[Jeremy McDermond]

On Jan 3, 2011, at 7:10 AM, Alberto I2PHD wrote:

> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> I just came across this YouTube video....
> 
> Is the name High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) registered by somebody ?

I don't believe it's registered.  That being said, it doesn't need to be registered to be defended.

> If not, couldn't Wind River and PrismTech sue TAPR for illegal use of the name ?

You can sue anyone for anything.  Whether you win that lawsuit or not is another story.  IANAL either, and I'm definitely not an expert in IP law.  That being said, that video was shot in 2009.  OpenHPSDR was around before that.  Plus, OpenHSPDR != HPSDR.  The idea of trademarks are to protect against confusion in the marketplace as to the origin of a product or service.  If there's no potential for confusion, there's no violation of the mark.  I would think that OpenHPSDR is sufficiently different than "High Performance Software Defined Radio" that there wouldn't be confusion.

An example is the term "VAX."  VAX was certainly trademarked by Digital Equipment back in the day, but there was also a vacuum cleaner named the VAX (it was a joke around the community because the vacuum cleaner's tagline was "Nothing sucks like a VAX!")  There is no trademark violation here because no sane person could confuse the vacuum cleaner with the computer.

> I am not a lawyer (thanks God), so maybe I am fully wrong here... 

I find that techies worry a lot about trademarks for some reason, without realizing that they're fundamentally different than patents and copyrights.  Trademarks tend to be fairly limited.  Or such is my non-lawyer understanding.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2DoOxWbrtw&feature=related
> 
> -- 
> 73 Alberto I2PHD

--
Jeremy McDermond (NH6Z)
Xenotropic Systems
mcdermj at xenotropic.com




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