Re: metadata a trademark?

On Sat, May 20, 2000, James Powers <jpowers[_at_]wbklaw.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 19 May 2000, Marlene E. Gordon <mgordon[_at_]umich.edu> inquired
> about the trademark claims asserted for the term METADATA:
> >
> > Would someone please comment on the following post which is forwarded
> > from the Visual Resources Association list server?
>
> The Metadata Corporation is trying to preserve trademark rights to a
> term that was once rather esoteric and which they (or at least their
> predecessor company actually coined). Unfortunately for them, it is
> also a word which over time, because of the explosion of data mining
> and similar information trends, has become an important and widely
> used term used to refer to "data about data" and to a data taxonomy
> or treatment of information method. Check out the following rather
> intriguing blurb from dictionary.com which partially supports their
> position on the term's history but certainly does not support their
> lawyer's present claims. According to this source Jack Meyers coined
> the term in 1969. Note the distinction and the recognition of the
> trademark rights (squib printed at bottom).
>
> My concern here is the shotgun the lawyers are trying to wield. At
> best they could wield a sharp-shooter's rifle and fire a precise
> bullet but are not doing so.
>
> A proposed response:
>
> Dear Lawyers for MetaData:
>
> Please reread the Lanham Act, survey use of the term METADATA and
> then get back to us.
>
> You do not OWN the word "METADATA" notwithstanding that "it is a
> federally registered trademark in the United States which [you claim]
> belongs exclusively to [your client]." We will recognize your rights
> to that term as used in connection with "computer programs and computer
> program manuals" but please examine those rights in light of the over
> 250,000 uses of the term which an AltaVista search realizes as of today.
>
> We are sympathetic to your plight, and we applaud and tip our hat to
> Mr. Meyers' coining of this term. Unfortunately, you are now trying
> to run up the down escalator called 'fair use' and 'genericism.' You
> have apparently utterly failed to prevent the generic use of the single
> word "metadata:" See for example "A Guide to the Metadata Fields of
> the Marine and Coastal Data Directory for Australia, Bluepages.
> Contents: This document describes the sections and..." (which was one
> of the 250,000 AltaVista hits located for "metadata" (one word)).
> That space you claim rights to -- the space between meta and data
> -- is gone.
>
> So, we look forward to your reply and trust you understand we are not
> about to stop using this term in its fair and descriptive capacities.
>
> Close.
>
> On Dictionary.com:
>
> meta-data
>
> <data> /me't*-day`t*/, or combinations of /may'-/ or (Commonwealth)
> /mee'-/; /-dah`t*/ (Or "meta data") Data about data. In data processing,
> meta-data is definitional data that provides information about or
> documentation of other data managed within an application or
> environment.
>
> For example, meta data would document data about data elements or
> attributes, (name, size, data type, etc) and data about records or
> data structures (length, fields, columns, etc) and data about data
> (where it is located, how it is associated, ownership, etc.). Meta
> data may include descriptive information about the context, quality
> and condition, or characteristics of the data.
>
> Not to be confused with Metadata.
>
> (1997-04-06)
>
>
> Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, (c)
> 1993-2000 Denis Howe
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Metadata
>
> <product> (Note: One unhyphenated word with initial capital; contrast
> meta data) A word coined by Jack E. Myers to represent current and
> future lines of products implementing the concepts of his MetaModel,
> and also to designate his company The Metadata Company that would
> develop and market those products.
>
> A data and publication search performed when Myers coined the term,
> early in the summer of 1969, did not discover any use either of the
> word "metadata" or "meta data". Myers used the term in a 1973 product
> brochure and it is an Incontestable registered U.S. Trademark.
>
> (1997-04-06)

Informative history.

While it is nice that METADATA claims a US trademark, is it also registered in Australia? If not, Metadata probably doesn't have anything to say. Furthermore, the original post I think seemed to imply this was an Australian government use which complicates the situation even further.

Harold Federow
<haroldf[_at_]bsquare.com> Received on Mon May 22 2000 - 16:14:23 GMT