Okay kids, pay attention.
People are spouting off a lot of nonsense in this thread about Halcyon "owning" and "controlling" DIR because of its registration of a trademark for the term. Posters have used the words "patent", "copyright" and "trademark" in their comments in ways which show that they have no idea what they are talking about. I doubt that it will make a difference to the opinions of the bash-DIR-at-every-turn zealots, but if they want to hyperventilate about this, they ought to have a clue what a trademark is, and what it isn't. So here is a very short lesson in intellectual property law. I will skip the hard parts, and if you want to know more, you can pay me my hourly rate and I'll explain it in detail for you.
TRADEMARKS: A trademark is a word, phrase or image, alone or in combination, which identifies the SOURCE of a particular GOOD or SERVICE.
The idea of a legally protectable trademark arose in the Middle Ages, when craftsmen stamped unique marks on their wares to show who made it. Some people's work was better than others' and as their reputations spread, a skilled maker's mark on a particular widget made that widget more valuable than a widget from an inferior maker. Of course people then were just as venal as people now, so the makers of crummy widgets sometimes faked the marks of their more skilled competitors to try and fetch a higher price for their goods. The law of trademarks arose as a way of protecting the public and the holders of valuable marks from infringement.
Nowadays, you have trademark rights in a word or phrase or image that is associated in the market with your product. If the market understands that a particular word, phrase or image shows that the item in question comes from you, you can prevent your competitors from using the same word or phrase or image to sell their stuff. If you want, you can attempt to register your word, phrase or image with the federal government. The feds investigate your claim that you are using your mark in a particular area of commerce, and that your mark has some "secondary meaning" in the market- that people associate the mark with you and your product or service. If they agrre that you've met all the rules, they register your mark. It is up to you to stop anyone else from using your mark inappropriately.
An example of a trademark is the phrase "Pizza, Pizza". This is a registered trademark of Little Caesars. Does this mean that Little Caesars owns the idea of pizza, or the recipe for pizza, or even the idea of selling two pizzas for one price? Of course not. It just means that Little Caesars claims the right to prevent any other pizza sellers from using the phrase "Pizza, Pizza" in selling their pizza, because that phrase is associated in the minds of pizza buyers with Little Caesars and nobody else. If a competitor wants to challenge the claim that "Pizza, Pizza" is associated in the minds of pizza buyers with Little Caesars, they can. If they win, the claimed trademark is invalid.
Federal trademark registrations have to be renewed from time to time, but trademarks can last indefintely. As long as the mark is associated uniquely with a particular source, it is still a valid and protectable right. Trademark rights can be lost, however, if the trademark becomes a generic designation for a particlar item. "Asprin" was once a trademark owned by Bayer, but is now the generic description of a particular chemical composition.
PATENTS: A patent is a limited grant by the federal government of a monopoly in a particular INVENTION of some useful object, process or design. You cannot get a patent in anything unless the thing you are trying to patent is new, and is not an obvious extension of existing knowledge. When you apply for a patent you have to fully disclose everything about how your patent works. Once you get a patent, other people cannot use or sell your invention without your permission, until the patent expires. To get your permission they have to pay royalties to you. After the patent expires, everyone can use your patent. The period of exclusive use is the reward the government offers inventors for the full disclosure of their inventions, and the eventual right of everyone to someday use this new and useful thing for free.
Patents are useful to protect designs and processes that are easily reverse-engineered, assuming all the underlying requirements for patentability are met.
Examples of patented things whose patent terms have expired are barbed wire, egg cartons, aerosol shaving cream, and the pour spouts on cardboard milk containers. While the patent terms were running, only the inventors could make money on these things. Then the patents expired, and everyone could copy the designs for free.
COPYRIGHTS: A copyright protects the particular EXPRESSION of an idea in certain media. A creative work cannot be copied and used in commerce without the permission of the owner of the copyright. Works are protected under federal copyright law for defined time periods which are tied to the lifetime of the creator of the work.
A word or phrase in general use cannot be copyrighted. There also must be some element of creativity in the work, even if minimal. The idea behind copyright is to prevent plaigarism - passing off someone else's work as your own. The ideas expressed in a work are not protected by copyright, only the expression of the ideas is protected.
Authors of creative works do not want their material copied, sold or used without their permission. A copyright notice (A "c" in a circle) tells the world that the author claims a copyright in the work in question. The author may also register the work with the federal government, which basically consists of sending a copy of the work to be filed away as proof of priority in the event of a later dispute.
Copyright prevents actual copying. Unlike a patent, if an accused infringer shows that he or she created the accused work independently, then there is no infringement.
Now kids, lets apply these brief lessons to the matter at issue.
1. - Halcyon is not attempting to PATENT the term DIR.
Halcyon is not claiming that it invented DIR. DIR methods and practices generally are not patentable, because they are not new. They have been in use and disclosed in the diving community and to the extent they were ever patentable, they no longer are.
2. - Halcyon is not attempting to COPYRIGHT the term DIR.
The term itself is not copyrightable as a matter of law. Creative works describing DIR are copyrightable, but all that means is that you can't plagiarize the work. The underlying IDEAS of DIR are in the public domain and can be discussed and written about by anyone.
3. - Halcyon is attempting to get a federal TRADEMARK registration for the term DIR. Halcyon already has a common law claim to a trademark in the terms DIR and Doing It Right because it has been using them for some time to identify its goods. Note that DIR has been used by Halcyon on its goods for years, without any complaint by any of the screamers on this board. That shows that the marketplace does in fact associate the term DIR with Halcyon.
Halcyon is claiming in its federal registration that the term DIR is associated in the marketplace with goods from Halcyon. I suspect that the federal trademark examiner will agree with this assertion and accept Halcyon's trademark registration as requested, perhaps with some limitations, if that has not happened already.
Whether or not the federal trademark is issued, Halcyon's right to prevent others from using the term DIR will be limited to manufacturing and selling scuba equipment. If Halcyon is found to have a trademark in the term DIR, Halcyon will be able to prevent other manufacturers and sellers of scuba equipment from using the term DIR to sell their goods in competition with Halcyon.
Halcyon's existing and prospective trademark rights will not prevent anyone from talking about the protocols and procedures that make up DIR diving.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled ranting.
