OS2 World Community Forum

WebSite Information => Comments, Suggestions & Questions => Topic started by: Edmund Wong on December 14, 2022, 02:29:19 am

Title: OS/2 merchandise (addendum to OS/2 trademarks thread)
Post by: Edmund Wong on December 14, 2022, 02:29:19 am
I wanted to post to the OS/2 trademark thread; but was warned that it's been 120 days since the last post.

Someone mentioned "not reminding IBM nor Microsoft of the dead trademark"; but my question is (and pardon
my ignorance), why would IBM or Microsoft care?   IBM gave up on OS/2 and Microsoft wouldn't even consider
OS/2 as a 'competition'.  That said,  "IBM OS/2 Warp" does bring up good memories.

Also, it would be nice to own an OS/2 Warp T-shirt. 

Edmund
Title: Re: OS/2 merchandise (addendum to OS/2 trademarks thread)
Post by: Roderick Klein on December 14, 2022, 07:40:30 pm
I am not certain. But even when a trademark its registration has not been extended by the trademark owner. Then I am do not think you can just use.
As IBM still retains ownership of the word OS/2.  This might also vary from region to region in the world.

Roderick
Title: Re: OS/2 merchandise (addendum to OS/2 trademarks thread)
Post by: christech on December 15, 2022, 02:55:11 am
Check out Redbubble for OS/2 shirts. I ordered some OS/2 stickers for my laptop.
Title: Re: OS/2 merchandise (addendum to OS/2 trademarks thread)
Post by: Martin Iturbide on December 15, 2022, 03:37:50 am
Hi.

This is very interesting reading if someone wants to buy the OS/2 or OS/2 Warp trademarks.

https://corsearch.com/content-library/blog/four-considerations-before-purchasing-a-dead-trademark/

Regards
Title: Re: OS/2 merchandise (addendum to OS/2 trademarks thread)
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on December 17, 2022, 12:38:32 pm
I am not certain. But even when a trademark its registration has not been extended by the trademark owner. Then I am do not think you can just use.
As IBM still retains ownership of the word OS/2.  This might also vary from region to region in the world.

Roderick
No, that applies to copyrights and automatic grants of IP ownership in general (for most countries anyway, those that are fully signed up to the Berne convention). Trademarks are different, they have some aspects of IP but are mostly grants of goodwill, you have to register them, keep the registration current and defend them, otherwise you lose the exclusive rights to use them.

IBM & MS can object to you registering the OS/2 trademark, but they will have to show that they are currently using it, show that you are not currently using it and are thus attempting to register it in bad faith, and will have to show a valid reason for not having maintained the trademark registration. They cannot stop you from using it on t-shirts or other products, since they no longer have any claim on it.

The CE world is full of trademarks that have at one time been taken over by unrelated companies or individuals by re-registering the trademark rather than buying them from a trademark owner, for example Nikko, Telefunken, Universal Audio, Moog, Scott, Audio Note, etc.