Re: [DML] "use of the DMC logo..."

[Peter Lucas <lucas@xxxxxxxx>]

*****  Moderator's Note  *****
This is a good summary of the differences between Copyright and
Trademark.  We are not going to resolve the issue or DeLorean
Motor Company (both the original and the company in Houston)
copyrights and trademarks here - that can only be resolved by
attorneys and judges.  Consider this thread closed.

*****  Mike G  Moderator of the Week

I'm guessing that the moderators are going to stomp on this thread 
pretty quickly, but since the last few posts have been allowed, let me 
(without taking sides in any way) point out a basic confusion in the 
dialog:

This discussion has been confusing two very different kinds of 
intellectual property: copyright and trademark.  Copyright protects 
authors from having their  creative efforts being used by others.  They 
protect the *expression* of ideas, not the ideas or facts themselves.   
Trademarks, on the other hand protect things like trade names, logos or 
short phrases ("Things go better with Coke") that are used to identify 
products or services in the marketplace.

You get a copyright automatically just by the act of writing something, 
and your protection lasts for a long time (exactly how long depends on 
when you did the writing, but it is many, many years).  During the 
lifetime of a copyright, the protection is essentially permanent--if a 
company goes out of business, *somebody* inherits the copyrights.  You 
get trademark rights by *using* a mark in trade (or registering your 
intent to do so). It is first-come-first-served.  Further, if you stop 
using a trademark, or fail to defend it when others try to use it, you 
risk losing your rights (this is very different from copyright, where 
the rights are there whether you use them or not).

[Note to moderators:  DeLorean content follows: ]
All this means that the situation is very different for the Workshop 
manuals and for the DMC names and logos.  It is quite possible that 
John D. really does own the copyrights (I have no idea whether this is 
true).  If he does, he is free to grant permission for people to 
reproduce them (with or without royalties) or to sue infringers as he 
sees fit.  The original DMC logos, the name "DeLorean" as the 
description of an automobile, etc,  were trademarks in their day. If 
there was a period in which nobody was using them in trade, they would 
tend to lose their protection.  It is possible to sell the rights to 
use a trademark, but if has been abandoned, those rights may not exist. 
   DMCH (or anybody else) is free to attempt to create new trademark 
rights by using and defending certain marks, phrases, logos, etc.  This 
is clearly what DMCH is trying to do.  When DMCH has their lawyers send 
"nastygrams", they are simply doing what they have to do in order to 
establish new rights and protect whatever existing rights they have.  
Others are free to do the same.  When there are conflicts, some 
combination of earliest use and deepest pockets will decide the winner. 
   For better or worse, this is part of the way business works.

--Pete Lucas
   VIN #06703






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