On Feb 25, 5:53 pm, "David N. Williams" <willi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> Isn't the name "Axiom" problematic? It's been used for quite
> awhile by a well regarded and actively developed, free computer
> algebra system:
>
> http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/axiom/
>
> -- David
My particular use of the term "Axiom" requires that it be spoken with
a Klingon accent while wearing a coonskin cap. :)
I'm not sure why you picked this one example, since there are 100's if
not more software packages, products, companies, etc.. that use that
particular noun. In fact the only reason "Forth" is not "Fourth" is
because the computer which Charles Moore was using at the time imposed
a limit of 5 characters.
Do you have reason to believe they own the exclusive rights to the
word "Axiom"? If so then my use of the term "Axiom" is just a drop in
the bucket as Google returns the following:
Results 1 - 10 of about 212,000 for axiom software. (0.14 seconds)
I'd prefer this thread didn't digress in this direction, but here's a
little anecdote for you to consider:
While preparing to film a movie titled A Night In Casablanca, the Marx
Brothers received a letter from Warner Bros. threatening legal action
if they did not change the film's title. The studio claimed that the
film's title was too similar to their own film, Casablanca, released
almost five years earlier, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
Groucho, surmising that this letter was probably written by some low-
level wannabe in the studio's legal department, decided to answer it
with his inimitable wit. A ****tion of that letter follows.
Dear Warner Brothers,
Apparently, there is more than one way of conquering a city and
holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we
contemplated making this picture, I had no idea that the city of
Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers. However, it was
only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received your
long, ominous legal do***ent warning us not to use the name
Casablanca.
It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, your great-great
grandfather, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had
stumbled onto the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock (which
he later turned in for a hundred shares of common), named it
Casablanca.
I don't understand your attitude. Even if you plan on re-releasing
your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time
to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don't know whether
I could, but I certainly would like to try.
You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that
name without permission. What about "Warner Brothers"? Do you own that
too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what
about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before
you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when
Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor's eye, and even before
there had been other brothers--the Smith Brothers, the Brothers
Karamazov, Dan Brothers (an outfielder with Detroit), and "Brother,
Can You Spare a Dime?" (This was originally "Brothers, Can You Spare a
Dime?" but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out
one brother, gave all the money to the other one and whittled it down
to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?")
-- Greg
Ref:
http://www.roughnotes.com/rnmagazine/2005/may05/05p124.htm
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