Is the word "Python" copyrighted/trademarked?

[dsavitsk]

"David LeBlanc" <whisper at oz.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.1033533484.25470.python-list at python.org...
>
* * *
> The counter argument could be made that since Python has been used so many
> times in referece to the language without a trademark assertion ("(TM)" or
> "(R)" since it's actually registered), that it's no longer defensible.
Beyer
> lost "Asperin" that way and Milton-Bradley lost "Monopoly" (essentially,
the
> whole game). Xerox has taken pains to avoid having "xerox" become a common
> term for 'xerograpic reproduction' their preferred term.

Note that there is a difference.  Asperin was lost because it did not mark a
particular trade, that is, people didn't know it was a particular company's
product as opposed to a generic product. (Escalator is another good
example.)  In Python's case, there is no confusion whether Python (R) is a
particular product.  Clearly not all, or even a few, languages are Python
... only 1. Notice that Activepython is (R), and presumably jython, and
stackless python could be as well.

There is a second part to trademarks which is that you must defend your mark
else you lose it.  I think you combined the 2 above (they didn't defend it
and it became generic).  thus, if NCRI allows a few folks to use Python and
not Python (R) they could lose it. This almost happened to the BSD beastie,
and there is a page up with the trademark info to protect
it(http://www.mckusick.com/beastie/mainpage/copyright.html)

-d