Author: Enrique Irazoqui
Date: 03:43:20 10/20/99
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On October 19, 1999 at 20:14:57, KarinsDad wrote: >On October 19, 1999 at 19:10:36, James B. Shearer wrote: > >[snip] >> >> This has nothing to do with copyright. It is a trademark question. >>For what it's worth I don't believe that under US law "Deep Blue Junior" would >>infringe on any trademark rights Ban may have on the word "Junior". Was Junior >>even for sale when "Deep Blue Junior" was coined? >> James B. Shearer > >You are correct. I am terrible at legalisms (libel vs. slander, copyright vs. >trademark, etc.). That's probably why my sister became a DA, in order to one up >me on legalisms. ;) > >Well, both Junior and Deep Blue Jr. have been around for quite a while. Junior >won the microcomputer championship in 1997. Deep Blue Jr. started touring in >1996 I think, but I cannot find any references to it before 1997. > >So, I guess someone who knows the history of these two programs better than I >should speak up. In my database I have international tournament games played by Junior in 1995. Calling three chess programs "Junior", "Deep Blue Junior" and "Deep Junior" (in chronological order of existence) is creating potential problems of misunderstandings and confusion. In a country like mine, the word Junior means nothing. If you tell someone "Hey, Junior!" he may as well think that you are calling him names. In this context, a person shopping for a chess program is going to be puzzled by the similarities in the names carrying the word Junior. "Junior" may be of common usage in the States, and Deep Blue Junior comes from there, but this doesn't excuse much. No word in chess is more common than "Chess" itself. We also have masters of all sort: national, FIDE, IM, GM. This wouldn't justify a brand name of MasterChess 10000, because Chessmaster exists already and it would be confusing. In my opinion, the proliferation of the usage of "Junior" may create the same sort of problem. Enrique >KarinsDad :)
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