[Asterisk-biz] Asterisk Phone or *SHIP

[Greg Broiles]

The people at Digium seem to be pretty diligent is appending the
little "tm" (= trademark) symbol wherever they use the term Asterisk.
I suspect (but perhaps you should confirm this with them) that they
believe they have, or will have, an enforceable trademark in the term
"Asterisk", at least as it relates to VoIP telephony.

Accordingly, I suspect that you will experience less controversy and
conflict in your life if you choose a name for your product that
doesn't use the term "Asterisk".

Also, if you find a name for your product that doesn't overlap with
already-existing terms or words, you will have a more
protectible/valuable trademark in whatever it is that you name your
product.

Ideally, you would name your product something that isn't purely
descriptive. "SIP Phone" would be a terrible name for a product, from
a trademark perspective, because it's entirely descriptive. Anyone can
sell a SIP-compatible phone and call it a "SIP phone", and you can't
sue them, because you can't get a protectible interest in the
descriptive aspects of the name.

On the other hand, if you name your SIP phone "Rumplestiltskin", then
you can go after other people who might want to call their phones
"Rumplestiltskin", too, in order to steal some of your business.

If this is an important project for you, you should find an attorney
who does trademark work and talk this over with them. (I don't do
trademark work.)

I don't work for Digium, don't think I've ever even met anyone who
works there, and am not offering this as legal advice, just some
common sense.

-- 
Greg Broiles, JD, EA
gbroiles at gmail.com (Lists only. Not for confidential communications.)
Law Office of Gregory A. Broiles
San Jose, CA