You cannot get trademark protection for anything "functional". To the extent that the Habeus magic words are used functionally, I do not think they are eligible for trademark protection. Ditto copyright: "Works that may not be protectable by copyright include: .... short phrases and slogans, familiar symbols or designs, and other works lacking sufficient creativity or independent effort; designs of useful articles or products where the designs are not conceptually separable from the functional aspects of the article or product; works consisting only of information that is in the public domain; and blank forms and other works which are designed for recording information and which do not in themselves convey information." (source: American Law Institute - American Bar Association Continuing Legal Education April 10-11, 2003 Trademarks, Copyrights, and Unfair Competition for the General Practitioner and the Corporate Counsel COURSE OVERVIEW Ronald L. Panitch SH085 ALI-ABA 361) Functional things are eligible to be patented. Thus, I have grave doubts as to the strength of this footing under IP law. There might be alternate legal theories that would work a little better.... I could go into considerably greater detail as to why, and also as to what the counter-argument might look like, but I'd have to charge you... On Fri, 6 Jun 2003 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote: [...] > IANAL, but it looks to me like the Habeas crew is on fairly strong legal > footing. Also, they're not trying to stop spam directly. They're providing > two services: (a) a header tag that you can use to filter your inbound > mail for *NON*-spam, and (b) the chance for any spammers to spend enough > money on legal fees to render it unprofitable. > -- Please visit http://www.icannwatch.org A. Michael Froomkin | Professor of Law | froomkin@law.tm U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA +1 (305) 284-4285 | +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) | http://www.law.tm -->It's hot here.<--