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Trade and Service Marks

Brian: I think that registration of acronyms will become increasingly
critical as we do more and more over the web, and therefore I support 
the registration of important names we use. The critical one is "CIF"
and I think that the "STAR File" already has a level of protection 
from the IUCr patent... but perhaps it needs more.

It would help me if you could spell out the protection and approx costs
related to getting Trade and Service Marks.

I also see the acronyms "DDL" and "CBF" as important but I worry in 
both cases what effect their registration might have on their develop-
ment. If it can be made to act as stimulus (with possible IUCr incentives
for innovation) then this would be positive, if it is going to inhibit
individuals from working on new concepts in these areas then I oppose it.

I think the dictionary names "mmCIF, etc." are of lesser importance and
are less likely to be taken over by others. But if we can get them 
registered in a bulk deal then add "coreCIF" and lets get them done.

Theres quite a bit more that can be said on the registration of "DDL"
but I don't want to go into that at the moment. Suffice it to say that
there is a distinctly grey area at the moment between "development effort"
and "official adoption" of the outcomes... and I believe that this needs 
to clarified so as to encourage future projects of this sort. COMCIFS 
should be active in stimulating (via low-level seed funding) incentives 
in these areas with the view to meeting specific application needs. I
guess the "CIF editor" is a good case in point... but so is the next
generation of DDL's.

Cheers, Syd.

------
 syd@crystal.uwa.edu.au         ,-_|\       Professor Sydney R. Hall 
                               /     \      Director, Crystallography Centre
 Fx:  61(8)9380 1118       --> *_,-._/      Deputy Executive Dean of Science
 Ph:  61(8)9380 2725                v       University of Western Australia
 www.crystal.uwa.edu.au                     Nedlands 6907, AUSTRALIA.