The National Audubon Society has registered "Audubon" as trademark for a number of goods and services. There is not presently any registration for "Audubon Core". AFAIK, it is not trademark infringement if there is no confusion over the usage. Also, I have the impression that it is impossible to trademark the name of a human except for specific uses. For example, one of NAS's trademark on "Audubon" is for clothing. One would have to look over all their trademarks to see if any of them are for use in the name of data standards.
I suppose that marketing confusion is possible, though I never heard any tales that the city of Dublin, Ohio, ever complained about the Dublin Core, even though that is the referent of "Dublin" in Dublin Core.
I wouldn't be surprised if The National Audubon Society tries to bully small organizations into not using "Audubon" though.
Really, if TDWG wants to grow up about marketing, it would have an IPR lawyer to ask about these matters, since opinions of scientists (including those I express) often have little connection to the actual laws. Or, maybe TDWG does already have such a lawyer to consult.
On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Steve Baskauf steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu wrote:
Not to throw cold water on a cute idea, but would it be good to consider possible confusion/trademark issues with the National Audubon Society, which is generically known as "Audubon"? Steve
Bob Morris wrote:
Much as I would love to be the convenor of mrmd, I must concede that Audubon Core has way more marketability.
Two issues then arise: 1. An acronym for use in name spaces and communication; 2. the need(?) for a word to replace "core" in describing the most important terms in the proposed standard, and which are the ones we suggest are the minimal set that implementers of consuming software should be prepared to handle gracefully. Audubon Core Core sounds silly and confusing to me.
As to 1., I somewhat favor some form of adbn. Or if we must end it in "c" and can't tolerate adbnc, then maybe adnc (resp. AdnC).
As to 2, I have no suggestion
On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 9:49 AM, Gregor Hagedorn g.m.hagedorn@gmail.com wrote:
Audubon Core.
(and the abbreviation could be AC)
Gregor
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