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Janice Gelb wrote:
>
> 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?
Certainly they think so, but a court recently questioned that point.
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