Deadline

[Casey Harkins]

Sean Egan wrote:
> On 4/8/07, Richard Laager <rlaager at wiktel.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, 2007-04-08 at 18:17 -0700, Sean Egan wrote:
>>> Also, we may now start using ™ in
>>> conjunction with the word Pidgin as a precursor to registering a
>>> trademark, if we decide to do that. Thoughts?
>> I'd like to avoid the stupid ™ unless it's necessary from a legal
>> perspective. I think we should register Pidgin as a trademark, unless
>> the fees are really excessive.
> 
> They are not excessive ($200-300, I think), but you are not allowed to
> register a trademark until you're actually using the mark in trade,
> which we're not yet doing. This is something we can only do after a
> release. a ™ is certainly not necessary, but would be a good way to
> assert our interest in protecting this mark until we're able to
> legally register it.
>

How about using the ™ in the "About" window with some text about Pidgin 
being a trademark of Instant Messaging Freedom Corporation and leaving 
most other instances of "Pidgin" without?

Is the Instant Messaging Freedom Corporation a 501c (non-profit)? I'm 
assuming not (since 501c's are a PITA to setup from what I understand). 
I certainly could see personal and corporate donations (regardless of 
501c status) as a way to raise funds for trademark registration and 
potentially defending it (hopefully that won't be necessary).

I was pretty surprised by the news and want to commend all of you 
involved for seeing this through to a mostly peaceful resolution.

-casey