Author: KarinsDad
Date: 08:42:18 10/20/99
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On October 20, 1999 at 08:28:55, Dave Gomboc wrote: [snip] > >Programs called "Masterchess" and "Grandmaster Chess" exist, though. > >Dave The words "master" and "chess" proliferate through the chess playing and chess programming worlds. However, the word Junior means nothing with regards to chess itself. Hence, I would think that it would be easier to prove a case of trademark infringement on the word Junior than on the word Master (again, my knowledge of legal matters is virtually nil, so this is only my opinion). Also, Robert mentioned that there was a Cray Blitz Junior years ago since he ran the program on a smaller Cray. However, there is also a difference between running a program called Cray Blitz on a smaller system for a tournament or three, renaming it CB Jr. in order to not confuse people, and then never running it again (i.e. that was the name used for the tournaments, but not really the name of the program); and Amir coming up with the name Junior for a program that he sells on the market and then Dr. Hsu coming up with the name Deep Blue Junior which he has not sold on the market, but may some day (and of course, CB Jr. wasn't sold on the market either). To me (and again, I am a layman on legal matters), it would seem that Amir has the rights to the name Junior and Dr. Hsu does not since Junior got to the market first (I'm sure there are some trademarks that can be maintained before getting to market, but I doubt Dr. Hsu did that). And since the name Junior is used in it's entirety within the name Deep Blue Junior, there could be a false assumption by some people that Deep Blue Junior is related to Junior. For example, people could think that Deep Blue Junior is a version of Junior that runs on the RS6000 chip or somesuch. Someone like Robert would never think that since he is an expert in this field. But, someone who is not an expert could be confused. Now, this should not be a major issue UNTIL Dr. Hsu attempts to sell Deep Blue Junior in the marketplace. At that point in time, I would not be surprised if Amir did not take him to court over it since it is obvious that regardless of when Dr. Hsu gave Deep Blue Junior it's name, Amir's product arrived in the market WAY before DB Jr. KarinsDad :)
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