Re: Waiting periods, success and failures

[David Collier-Brown <davecb@suncan.Sun.COM>]

I wrote:
>   So let's look at actual behaviors in the past, and the jurisdictions
> where publication periods have been tried, so as to give us some
> kind of idea what people might be able to do.
> I can speak a bit to the early history of trade mark,

  In the earliest days of trade mark, the procerss was very ``quiet''.
A tradesman looked at existing marks and armorial bearings that
he was aware of in his area, invented something he considered
memorable and pleasinmg, and started using it.

  If he was smart, he found some way to get it into the hands
of the local lord or his law man, so that later challenges would be
scoffed at. Sometimes he got permission from a patron to use their
arms, as a preexisting mark, although that wis mildly unusual
(this exists to this day: I have cheese with the queen mother's 
arms on its package).

  There was no particular effort to make a mark widely known
in the early days of its use, but after a year or so, and a few
spring and fall fairs, the tradesman might well try to push
the wares and the mark out to a broader area, not strictly for
protection of the mark, but for ordinary businesss reasons,
with the protection of a well-known mark as a pleasant side effect.

  Unlike early armorial bearings, tradesmen weren't likely
or happy to change their mark overnight.  Of course, they weren't
risking being killed by their own side in a battle if they didn't,
so their motivation was weaker (:-)).

  Publication wasn't the big thing: reputation and recognition
was the aim.  You not only had to have a good, recognized mark,
you had to have good goods to display it on.    

--dave
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | Always do right. This will gratify some people
185 Ellerslie Ave.,   | astonish the rest.        -- Mark Twain
Willowdale, Ontario   | davecb@hobbes.ss.org, canada.sun.com
N2M 1Y3. 416-223-8968 | http://java.science.yorku.ca/~davecb