Is TRON a registered trademark?

[Dr H Bodlaender]

Here is a question of a theoretical computer scientist - maybe you can
help me ?

Some of you will know the video-game TRON (or the movie).
My question is: is this word "tron" a registered / copyrighted
trademark, and if so - of who (Walt Disney Comp.?)

Why am I asking this? I proved a generalisation of TROn (to directed
graphs) to be PSPACE-complete (as this isn't comp.theory I'll omit the
proof :-) ). In my paper I'm going to write, I want to be sure that I
do not violate any (e.g. copyright) law . Many thanks in advance!

By the way, many of the articles in the "rec"-newsgroup seem not to
come to our institution ( :-( ), (maybe they do not leave N-America
:-( ?). So please reply with electronic (or even paper) mail.

Hans Bodlaender
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80.089
3508 TB Utrecht
the Netherlands

ha...@ruuinf.uucp

[torc...@silver.bacs.indiana.edu]

Yes, TRON is a registered trademark, but of more than one company. It is
the registered trademark of whoever makes the BASIC for the IBM PC. It's
ironic that Disney says no one can use their trademarks, while they
themselves have gone out and stole TRON from the computer Language.

Here is an example of TRON in BASIC (a sample program explaining TRON):

10 PRINT "I feel like going to the movies tonight!"
20 GOTO 10

If you selected the TRON funtion (which means TRackON) the output would be
thus:

[10] I feel like going to the movies tonight!
[20] [10] I feel like going to the movies tonight!

And so on. The numbers in the brackets depicting the line number. The opposite
of TRON is TROFF (TRack OFF) which takes the annoying bracket out as well as
the number. SO, do what you must, but if Disney sues, strike back and drive 'em
down to the ground.

EXTRA! EXTRA! More scandal in the area of plagiarism! The McDonalds song "Good
Time, Great Taste!" is acually a rip off of the harmony of a simple tune
written by Henry Purcell named "Rigadoon". I know, 'cause I've played it. It
makes me look like this: (|'( ). The tune was written in the 1600's. If ya
want proof, go down to the nearest sheet music store, and pick look through
the SUZUKI CELLO SCHOOL BOOK ONE HARMONIES. You have to know how to hum bass
clef, and you have to know the pitch. The cover looks like a bunch of orange
gears. I you want to be a lawyer, follow up on it, and contact the guy's
nearest relative. Then collect a hefty million or so.
BUT, maybe not. When I had my tonsils out, they did work extra hard to make
the fries soggy.
Just a point of interest: This response has all due respect to the companies
mentioned.

Good BYe, and Good Night
|')