Re: [Wikipedia-l] larousse.wikipedia.org?

"Oliver Pereira" wrote on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:00 AM Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] larousse.wikipedia.org? I think that the analogy with Macintosh may be a bit wrong. If someone gets linked to Wikipedia by putting the word larousse into a brower, search engine, etc., in light of Larousse publishing English encyclopedias I think that they might have a trademark infringement issue, the word, in English is considered fanciful. It is not an actual English word and it was not MrLarousse or Drlarousse it is the exact infringing word. And wasn't Larousse the man the founder of Larousse the company? This is the whole point of a trademark, you can't call Spanish sparkling wine champagne as champagne is a trademark identified with the production of sparking wine in a particular French region. Since it links to an encyclopedia there is not an issue of secondary meaning. This is the protection that Larousse was seeking when it applied for a trademark and got it from the US government. I am just saying here that one might have a hard time convincing a federal judge, in light of the use of Larousse as a trademark name and being used for English encyclopedias that its trademark was not infringed. Of course the infringement may be insignificant, but that is not the issue, is it? Alex756