According to John Battelle's Searchblog, the American Chemical Society has just sued Google on the grounds that Google Scholar (established 11/19/2004) infringes on the trademark of SciFinder Scholar (
registered with USPTO 5/25/2001). Yet to be heard from: WebElements Scholar, Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Scholar, the Scholar's Bookshelf, and the Ten O'Clock Scholar.
[Update 12/12/2004: Arnold Zwicky wonders about Scholar Press, the American Scholar, and (his favorite)
Road Scholar (which is a registered trademark, but seems willing to share its name with
an unrelated activity.).
]
And
I'm waiting to see whether the American Philosophical Society (founded 1743) will wake up and take legal action against the American Chemical Society (founded 1876), for transparently ripping off its name in a way likely to confuse the public.
Meanwhile, I'm hard at work on a patent application for my new invention, "Method for post-modifying English language product names to communicate their usefulness in scholarship". And rumor has it that Geoff Pullum is preparing to back up his existing copyright claim to snugglebunny with patent protection.
Posted by Mark Liberman at December 11, 2004 02:01 PM