From: Susan Daly [mailto:susan.m.daly@comcast.net] Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 10:10 AM To: INXS Subject: INXS: Is INXS trademarked? I was at the local mall this weekend and noticed this kiosk that sold wireless service. The name of the business was INXS Wireless. The font for the word INXS was a different font than the word Wireless. I thought it was capitalizing on the INXS name and started wondering if they trademarked their name. On a non INXS note, but Australian non the less, I was positively thrilled when Mark Webber qualified third for the F1 Japanese Grand Prix - then majorly bummed out when his car had problems and had to pull out during the race :( Sue From: Davy Jones [mailto:davy@nightswimming.com] Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 11:11 AM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: RE: INXS: Is INXS trademarked? ----- Original Message ----- > I was at the local mall this weekend and noticed this kiosk that sold > wireless service. The name of the business was INXS Wireless. The font for > the word INXS was a different font than the word Wireless. I thought it was > capitalizing on the INXS name and started wondering if they trademarked > their name. Trademarks are vastly different critter than copyrights. Trademarks can be industry specific. For example, there is "Life" the magazine, "Life" the board game, and "Life" the breakfast cereal, each of which have thier own trademarks by different companies. They can also vary by state. Part of my job requires me to research corporate bonds. Whenever I see the name "First Bancorp" my first question is, "Which one?" There are 30 of them. (This can change if your company gets big enough to be nationally recognized, but I don't know excatly the when or how.) So even having a company with just the word "INXS" in it is usually not, in and of itself, any type of violaton. Although, there used to be a band called CNN who did get threatened by the Cable News Network and they changed thier name to XC-NN. (As an aside, two of the members of XC-NN later formed a band called Tin Star. Anybody who was subscribed to the group back 1998 might remember us discussing how their lead singer's voice could be hauntingly familiar at times.) A company logo can be protected by both copyright and trademark laws, but I don't think INXS ever had an official logo until they started using the one with the recessed star on Elegantly Wasted. I don't think that simply putting your company name in any old font constitutes a trademarkable logo. (Having a special font made or adding other items is a different issue) Simply using one font for "INXS" and another font for "Wireless" is most probably not a signficiant enough distinction to constitute infringement unless they are actually using an established band logo. Verizon Wireless uses a different font for each word to greater emphasize "Verizon". It makes sense that other wireless companies would use a similar visual effect. Davy From: Susan Daly [mailto:susan.m.daly@comcast.net] Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 11:30 AM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: RE: INXS: Is INXS trademarked? Wow, thanks Davy. Great explanation. I really didn't think they would take a name that would quickly send in the INXS police :) >> Although, there used to be a band called CNN who did get threatened by the Cable News Network and they changed thier name to XC-NN. (As an aside, two of the members of XC-NN later formed a band called Tin Star. Anybody who was subscribed to the group back 1998 might remember us discussing how their lead singer's voice could be hauntingly familiar at times.)<< And thanks for a solving another mystery for me. I have the disc "Lifted" by them. And not to nit pik but the band name on the disc is XC-NN :) I wouldn't had noticed if I didn't grab it to check names to compare to the one Tin Star disc I have ("Thrill Kisser"). From: Kelly Koczkur [mailto:silverbeachbabe@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 12:53 PM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: INXS: Christmas Card Exchange Is anyone organizing it this year? From: Fists of Fury Eric Reed [mailto:skippythefrog@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 6:57 PM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: Re: INXS: Christmas Card Exchange I heard you were! : P From: Kelly Koczkur [mailto:silverbeachbabe@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 12:43 AM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: Re: INXS: Christmas Card Exchange I could I suppose, won't have as much time to get people on the list but I'll get everything together and get it out tomorrow (unless someone else had wanted to do it). From: Dutchie08@aol.com [mailto:Dutchie08@aol.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 8:20 AM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: Re: INXS: Christmas Card Exchange Hi all, I'll come out of the lurking and post here... I usually organise the Christmas card exchange every year, but if someone else wants to do it this year, that's fine with me. :-) It's up to you guys! I'll be more than happy to do it, just let me know! Thanks! Michelle (Dutchie) From: Dutchie08@aol.com [mailto:Dutchie08@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 9:10 PM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: INXS: INXS Christmas Card Exchange- I will collect names... Hi all, Okay, I've gotten a few responses and I guess I am nominated to do the Christmas card this year. I will start collecting names the 1st week of November and collect them up until the end of November. This should give everyone PLENTY of time to submit their names if they want to be on the list. For those of you who are not familiar with what the Christmas card exchange is... You sign your name up and you send Christmas cards to everyone that is on the list. Everyone else that is on the list will do the same as well. It's always fun to get cards from all over the world. So, that's it... :-) Start thinking if you want to add your name. Again, I will start collecting names at the beginning of the first week of November. (Next week basically or so) Thanks all... Michelle (Dutchie) "If you're banging your head against a wall and nothing seems to ever change, consider changing your mind." -Shirley Manson, lead singer of the band Garbage- "Dream up the kind of world you want to live in, but dream in volume out loud..." -Bono of U2- From: Kelly Koczkur [mailto:silverbeachbabe@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 10:00 PM To: inxs@topica.com Subject: Re: INXS: Christmas Card Exchange Yes, I thought that was you who did it Michelle, it would be awesome if you could do it again. I'm very very busy with work.