Florian Klaempfl wrote:
David Lyon schrieb:
Legal talk again.....
If you guys are serious about doing a foundation... then you
also must seriously start to entertain the neccessity for a name
change.
I have looked up Lazarus on the US Trademarks system, it is already
registered.
tess2.uspto.gov
Register with this name, and chances of losing any property you own
because somebody "gunna sue your a#se" are pretty high. Doesn't matter
really what country you live in... they can come after you.... trust me....
Sorry.....
For Lazarus to go legal, it needs a new name, registrable as a
trademark... no way around it... I have spent a lot of money being
lectured about how important this is by my lawyer in the past.....
here are just one of the results of my search...
these guys could do a lot of damage..... they just need to find a
student information app that compiles under Lazarus/fpc and you're blown
out of the water. Pardon my strong language.... but this message needs
to be conveyed....
*LAZARUS*
*Goods and Services* IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Providing temporary use
of non-downloadable database software for storage and retrieval of data
transmission and report generation regarding student information
administration. FIRST USE: 20030701. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20040703
*Mark Drawing Code* (1) TYPED DRAWING
*Serial Number* 76526464
*Filing Date* June 20, 2003
Doesn't matter at least in Germany, we can easily prove that lazarus
used the term lazarus before.
I can tell you for a fact that Germany is a signatory to international
conventions on Intellectual property, trademarks and patents.
But whilst there is no registered organisation, no money being taken, no
taxes being paid and nothing being sold I'm pretty certain that there is
absolutely no problem whatsoever. So keeping on going like it is should
be no problem.
However, if you want to register it as a foundation, with registered
members and legal responsibilities, then some very basic trademark and
name searches need to be undertaken. This is no different than if you
are buying a car, checking that the car isn't stolen or has money owing
on it. It's exactly the same.
My checks tell me that "Lazarus" is already trademarked (therefore
legally owned) by an existing software company. So I am advising caution
in proceeding with this further.
David
