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Re: Possible Spam : Re: Renewal of STAR File trademark registration

It's a modest amount (GBP 300 for a 10-year renewal); but if one wanted
to extend protection to other trademarks that would be multiplied
accordingly, and likewise if one wanted protection in other
jurisdictions.

I find Peter M-R's post very helpful, inasmuch as we're trying to
protect community norms rather than commercial interests. I'm
also somewhat of the opinion that the original filing of a patent
might have been more of a hindrance than a help in terms of winning
over community trust in the IUCr's good intentions. (That was
done in accordance with advice on appropriate practice at that
time, but it was a time when open-source software ideas were
still gestational).

Brian

On 09/07/2020 19:36, Jim Kaduk via comcifs wrote:
> HI, Brian:
> 
> How much money are we talking about?
> 
> Jim Kaduk
> 
> On 2020-07-08 05:17, Brian McMahon via comcifs wrote:
>> Dear All
>>
>> The IUCr Executive Secretary has received a renewal notice for
>> the registered trademark "STAR File" that expires at the end of
>> the year. There is a cost involved and the Executive Secretary
>> has queried whether we still want to protect this trademark.
>>
>> The trademark was registered in 2001 with the UK Intellectual
>> Property Office as an outcome of the COMCIFS discussions in
>> 2000 that led to the policy statement on the CIF website
>> https://www.iucr.org/resources/cif/comcifs/policy
>>
>> That statement includes the following paragraph:
>>
>>      Protection of the standards
>>      To protect the STAR File and the CIF as standards for interchanging
>>      and archiving electronic data, the IUCr, on behalf of the
>>      scientific community,
>>
>>        * holds the copyrights on the standards themselves,
>>        * owns the associated trademarks and service marks, and
>>        * holds a patent on the STAR File.
>>
>>      These intellectual property rights relate solely to the interchange
>>      formats, not to the data contained therein, nor to the software
>>      used in the generation, access or manipulation of the data.
>>
>> Note that the STAR File patent has now expired in the sole jurisdiction
>> where it was filed (the UK), so the statement should now be revised at
>> least to reflect that fact.
>>
>> So far as we can ascertain, the only active trademark registration is
>> that for "STAR File", but I shall can the Executive Secretary to review
>> paper files for 2001 when he returns to the office. According to my
>> notes, "STAR File" was used as a test case but ran into some
>> measure of difficult as predicted by Nick Spadaccini in
>> https://www.iucr.org/__data/iucr/lists/comcifs-l/msg00055.html
>>
>> Obviously the difficulties were overcome in this case, but I
>> don't know if the then Executive Secretary pursued other registration
>> attempts (e.g. for "CIF").
>>
>> I invite comment.
>>
>> Regards
>> Brian
>> _______________________________________________
>> comcifs mailing list
>> comcifs@iucr.org
>> http://mailman.iucr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/comcifs



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