Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #00489



To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Jean auBois aubois@trail.com
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 13:26:33 -0700
Subject: [alt-beam] BEAM as a trademark


At 02:21 AM 2/16/99 , Steven Bolt wrote:

>Anything can be called (though not labeled for trade as) `BEAM'.
>The Small Gods are rather careful with the word.

I believe that the James B. Beam Distilling Co. might wish to argue with
you as to who has first dibs on "BEAM". And then there's Summit
Technology's stock symbol which happens to be "BEAM". Of course, the
people who own the www.beam.org page might be concerned or likewise a
similar organization at http://members.aol.com/NIQUEYES/beams.html. And
then there is BEAM Ltd. whose page you can see at
http://www.beam.demon.co.uk/ -- or perhaps you'd like to attend one of the
$2300US course that covers BEAM: A Monte Carlo code to simulate
radiotherapy treatment units... seems at least a little commercial to me.
Then there is AT BEAM Inc., a website and multimedia development company
whose page you can see at http://www.at-beam.com/ -- and also a band that
plays Celtic music named BEAM in Germany. And of course you might want to
look at Precision BEAM Technoloties at http://www.pbt.co.uk/ but I don't
know. Or even BEAM Radio whose page is at http://www.beamradio.com/ and so
on, ad nauseam. Although the there were quite a few references to the BEAM
that we all know and love, the above references were found on a mere 5 Alta
Vista search pages. The word "BEAM" is ubiquitous.

For those who think that the variants of "BEAM" are not a problem, this is
not true. There are at least two kinds of legal suits that stem from
trademarks -- out-and-out infringement and "similarity that would cause
confusion in the mind of the customer." Anybody remember IBM's gaffe when
their palmtop computer had a name too much like USRobotic's machine --
USRobotics won, btw.

None of the pages quoted either of the companies (whose existence qua BEAM
I surmise to be bogus) who supposedly hold the definitive BEAM trademark.
These days it is hard to believe that either could exist without showing up
on the web somewhere other than quotes from the first BEAM Olympics book.
Alta Vista finds two references for "BEAM Robotics Inc.", one that refers
to it being a sponsor at the Fourth BEAM Robot Olympics competition for
which (oddly enough) the BEAM Olympics book was generated and on ancient
"Credits and Contacts" page at the nis-www.lanl.gov site which is a carbon
copy of what is in the book.

There is, in fact, a Square Deal Productions, Inc. whose home is Prince
Edward Island, Canada and whose site can be seen at
http://www.fixedlink.com/ -- oddly enough, they have absolutely nothing
whatsoever to do with BEAM robotics but concerns itself with a bridge that
connects the island to the mainland.

I still doubt that "BEAM" is trademarked in a legal, binding sense by
anyone among the small gods or other BEAM robotics aficionados.


Zoz


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