While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Dog Ma 1 rolled
initiative and posted the following:

> Space Cowboy wrote:
>> ...You might use rosetta as a synonym for the
>> idea of multilingual translation but in this case is copyright
>> for the specific intentional use to mean the translation of
>> Chinese English tea terms. If you want to use rosetta to mean
>> the same thing you'll need my permission. I was first and
>> anybody else is second which is the minimum test for copyright
>> infrigement.
>
>
> Actually, the issue here is not the test but the copyright.
> Under US and most foreign law (by reciprocal treaty), copyright
> applies to specific representation, lexical or graphical.
> Concepts may not be so protected. Titles are also not subject to
> copyright, as is evidenced by the frequent re-use of catchy
> phrases from prior works in the titles of new books, movies,
> poems, etc.
>
> What one could do, for $335, is register a "word-only" US
> service mark for a specific commercial use of a name or phrase
> for a specific service offering under one of the standard USPTO
> categories. Translation services are covered therein. Prior use
> in the same field does not necessarily bar issuance of the
> service mark, but may make enforcement difficult if others have
> maintained a more-or-less continuous practice of the same
> service under the same name.

It'd be interesting to see if he has any success registering a public domain
term for a public domain behavior with the justification "But I'm applying it
specifically to types of tea."

--
Derek

If you find yourself struggling with loneliness, you're not alone.
And yet you are alone.
So very alone.