Sharon et al,
This is a good step. Asking for this sort of input.
But again we have the delemna that if you post your request
to your read only list, and anyone responds, it will be in the
form of a private post to you, therein defeating the principal
of discussion. Without everyone being able to see what others
think and bing able to share their ideas together, there is no
US. There is just you and the individual responses. I am in
no way making any form of insinuation and I pray no one takes
it that way. But the fact remains, you are asking for input and
there is no way for all of us to share in the process if all of us can't
share in the cross section of thoughts and ideas.
Personally, I don't think it matters one way or the other if we
protect ourselves in NC at this time, I would even vote for it.
But for all we know, someone could have taken the idea and
already filed for the same thing.
The National level will not take affect for 4-6 months at the minimum,
and that is from the time they actually get the thing filed,.in which time,
someone could file in every other state of the union for NCGENWEB
and sew up the market in which case the national protection may not
cover us.
These are just ideas and conversation points I'm throwing out, but
without complete NC CC involvement there isn't much chance of a
real discussion.
Thanks,
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: Sharon Williamson <Watauga(a)att.net>
To: <NCGENWEB-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 11:37 PM
Subject: [NCGENWEB] ADMIN MESSAGE - RESPONSE REQUESTED
Hi NCGenWeb CCs,
It seems any discussions related to securing a NC Service Mark for
NCGenWeb has
come to a halt.
To re-address this subject:
1 - Do we, as NCGenWeb, want to pursue Registration of NCGenWeb as a
Service
Mark with the state of NC?
(if the answer to No. 1 above is yes, then how do we go about it?)
A - Do we accept the offers of Paul Buckley and myself to fund the $50.00
filing fee? (Paul pointed out in an earlier e-mail, we are not legally
able to solicit funds, however I don't see any problem if someone
offers.)
B - Do we want to select three alternating trustees who would be the
official
representatives of NCGenWeb in pursuing Registration of the
Service
Mark,
and at the same time set up guidelines in which these persons
would be
allowed to exercise any duties that were expected of them?
OR - (again, if the answer to NO. 1 above is yes.)
C - Do we want to depend on the State Coordinator to make the application
for
the registration of NCGenWeb with the state of NC? (At this
point,
that
would be myself. I will be glad to do this if that is what is
wanted.)
Points to keep in mind . . .
We are having our NCGenWeb name used in web pages in unattractive ways
at
http://www.ncgenweb.org,
http://www.ncgenweb.com and
http://www.ncgenweb.net.
Although only
ncgenweb.org is openly hosted by Horace Peele, there
does
seem to
be a mysterious connection between the three sites.
Great effort has been made on my part to have the sites closed down, but
to no
avail. In order to make our stand more solid against these sites I
believe we
need to have our NCGenWeb name registered, although we can use the TM
or
SM
without doing so.
I believe we need to talk about where we go from here. This is something
that
needs to be decided one way or another. Are we just to ignore the
misuse
of
our name, or do we make an effort to defend ourselves?
Now, in closing. I know full well that everyone does not agree with me.
The
question is . . . how does the MAJORITY feel about things, and what
does
the
MAJORITY want to do about these things? To have a clear picture
about
these
things I would appreciate hearing from each and every one as to where
you
stand.
In that way, I will better be able to discern what our best action,
if
any,
should be.
Sincerely,
Sharon
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