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I know of a company that was very fond of sueing anyone that had something remotely similar to their name, logo, colors, font choices, you name it. It was pretty sad. They lost most of their lawsuits for a number of reasons. The last one they lost, they tried to sue someone for using a triangle, a symbol which appeared in part of one of their many logos. So, the system does work........some times.
Just out of curiosity, I understand copyright laws pretty well, but for trademarking, especially in the case of using a common phrase, don't the people suing over trademark violations have to prove that they are losing money? I mean, don't they have to show that the trademark applies to something specific, and that if anyone else uses the trademark in that way, they could lose money because of it? So, Microsoft could trademark Windows as an operating system, not as a word, and thus prevent others from creating an operating system and calling it Windows. But, if I were to create a CAD program that designed windows, and called it Windows, I'd be okay....right? Wrong? I guess this gets into the realm of McDonald's sueing every restaurant and food name that starts with Mc...but even they lose those lawsuits...some times.
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