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Subject:Re: Maximize and Minimize From:Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Apr 2002 12:28:32 -0700 (PDT)
Margaret Secara <margaret -dot- secara -at- alphather -dot- com> wrote:
>Individual words cannot be copyrighted, and I can't imagine how Microsoft would
>get away with trademarking an ordinary verb that simply describes a quite
>ordinary action. It makes the window smaller---it minimizes it. That's just
>English. (The best place to check for what Microsoft considers their own, their
>very own, is on their web site.)
>
"Maximize" and "minimize" are definitely public domain
words. However, I wouldn't go so far as a general statement
about the difficulties Microsoft would have trademarking
an ordinary term - they managed to trademark "Windows,"
didn't they?
*********************************************************************
Janice Gelb | Just speaking for me, not Sun.
janice -dot- gelb -at- eng -dot- sun -dot- com | http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8018/
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