legal issues - is tweet an official verb in the US language?

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Nicole Simon

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Aug 17, 2009, 8:06:14 AM8/17/09
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Question: is to tweet an official word in the english language
both american and english? as in widely used?
 
does the US and UK trademark system reject such applications?
 
In the german TM  system, a word which is widely used cannot
be trademarked. Like you can use Water as a image mark
(logowise etc) but not have the word trademarked.
 
 
[twit in different trademark class]
re twit from Matt Freedman
No, the Twit trademark doesn't cover most of the Twitter-related use
of it[1]. Although some uses (such as TwitVid) may be considered
trademark infringement under the Twit trademark.
 
(the link you gave matt is an expired search.)
 
legal systems are differnt, but in general, the western world
does use mostly the same system.
 
this is how this would run in the german system and
I am pretty sure it is similar in the US (=somebody with
real knowledge may be able to confirm the classes theory?)
 
of course the twit one is for something different. what
I meant is that i imagine that you do have the same classes
system, meaning you can have a trademark for twit as
'computer thingy' and nobody else can have a trademark
in _that class_ although it might be something totally different.
 
example: there is a detergent called linux. even if linux the OS has
a tm, it is in different classes. if I would like to build a game though,
or a computer device like a mouse and call it linux I could not - because
it is in the same class as the linux OS one. Neither can I have a thing
which is covered in the same class as the detergent.
 
but I can have a chocolaet named linux because that is a third class.
Nicole
 

 

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Bill Kocik

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Aug 18, 2009, 5:27:49 PM8/18/09
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On Aug 17, 8:06 am, Nicole Simon <nee...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Question: is to tweet an official word in the english language
> both american and english? as in widely used?
>
> does the US and UK trademark system reject such applications?

Microsoft has a registered trademark on Windows. Apple Computer has a
registered trademark on Apple.

David Fisher

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Aug 19, 2009, 8:59:57 AM8/19/09
to Twitter Development Talk
Unless someone here is a lawyer, we should probably avoid legal
debate- consult with each our own counsels, and move on to doing what
we do best (coding).
I find these debates are often filled with FUD, misinformation,
speculation, a misunderstanding of law, etc

The easiest way to get around it is to not use Twitter based words in
your company/product name. Otherwise, just do what Biz said and use
Tweet. It seems he gave the thumbs up on Tweet.

dave fisher
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