Copyright and latin descriptions

[John McNeill]

Doug Yanega wrote:

        I also recall things as you cited: a *name* may be trademarked, but
        not copyrighted. [For example, "listserv" is a trademarked program
        name, equivalent to "macjordomo", etc., and the people who created it
        have recently been getting bent out of shape about its increasingly
        colloquial use, which seems odd to me - I don't think Xerox, Kleenex,
        Q-tips, Saran Wrap, and other trademarked names entering colloquial
        usage has been perceived as a bad thing by their owners.]


As I understand it, the reason that holders of trademarked names
exercise their right to restrict colloquial usage of such names, is
that if they do not, their right to the trademark is endangered.  I do
not remember the precise examples but there have been a few famous
cases in U.S. law -- I think one involved Fridgedaire (I think
"fridge" may be, or have been, a trade-mark) - certainly in UK English
"to hoover" is the most common verb used for the process of cleaning
carpets with a vacuum-cleaner - and would be hard to trade-mark
nowadays!

Scientific names, being by definition for public use, cannot be trademarked.
This becomes particularly significant in the naming of cultivated plants --
sections of the ICNCP deal with this.

Reference:  Trehane, P., C.D. Brickell, B.R. Baum, W.L.A. Hetterscheid, A.C.
Leslie, J. McNeill, S.A. Spongberg, and F. Vrugtman  (eds.).  1995.  The
International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants _ 1995.  (ICNCP or
Cultivated Plant Code), adopted by the International Commission for the
Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants.  Quarterjack Publishing, Wimborne, U.K.
(Regnum veg. 133).  xvi + 175 pp.


John

------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park,
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada. Tel. and fax # 416-586-5744  e-mail:
johnm at rom.on.ca
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---