[WEB4LIB] Re: The word "listserv" copyrighted?

[Tara Calishain]

At 10:36 PM 5/24/2002, Nancy Sosna Bohm wrote:
>From: "Andro Gagné" <apgagne at frontiernet.net>
> >...Why not call it
> > an "e-mail discussion list" or use "Listserv®" with proper attribution?
>
>Hmmm...would that be correct usage if you were using it to refer to the
>email discussion rather than the software? For that matter, is it a
>violation of their 'trademark rights' if you are using "listserv" rather
>than "Listserv®" to refer to a discussion and not a software? Wouldn't it be
>more of a homonym, in that case? A homonym that happens to be spelled the
>same as the 'other' word. For that matter, lots of people spell it
>(erroneously?) "listserve."

I think the problem with using listserv in a generic way (and possibly why 
Listserv
so jealously guards their trademark) is because when you're discussing list 
servers,
you are tempted to say, "A listserv can do this" or "A listserv cannot do 
that"
and there's no way to make blanket statements like that. Lyris isn't 
Majordomo isn't
Listserv isn't Topica etc etc. I'm sure Listserv doesn't want to be 
mistaken for another
software package.

Tara