Re: Trademarking CypherSpace???

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:52 PM -0700 10/5/97, Bill Stewart wrote:
>Sigh.  A company called I-Planet is trying to trademark the term
>"Cypherspace", even though we've been using it for a couple of years
>in the cypherpunk community.  They're doing an IPSEC Virtual Private Network,
>with friendly HTML administration; http://www.i-planet.com/P2cypherpb.html .
>Looks like interesting stuff, and I wish them luck except in TMing the
>name :-)
>
>I looked on AltaVista and HotBot, and the earliest reference I found
>was from a 1994 article by Tim May.  I'd be interested in finding any
>earlier refs.
>There's also a line of comic books using the name, and a Java Applet
>from 1996, plus references from I-Planet in late 96 and 97.
>Anybody know if the term's been used in print in the dead-tree press?
>
>http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6095/assorted-short-pieces/may-police-state.txt 05-
>Oct-94


Seems to me I-Planet can't trademark a word which has been in usage by many
of us for several years. What could they do, demand that we stop using a
word we in all likelihood coined? Remove our old writings from the Web?
(How?)

We were using the term "cypherspace" in '93-94, especially in the physical
meetings in Mountain View. I recall first hearing it from Eric Hughes, who
may have gotten it from Jude Milhon, or elsewhere. The context was of a new
slogan:

"In cypherspace no one can read your screen."

(This being a takeoff on the "Aliens" tag line: "In space no one can hear
you scream.")

This usage was probably around mid-1993. I started using it to describe the
obvious thing, the "space" our messages, list, etc. live in.  There are
references in my Cyphernomicon, published in September '94, but written
over the previous 8 months, to cypherspace, as in the section on "Data
Havens," where I wrote: "One of the powerful uses of strong crypto is the
creation of journals, web sites, mailing lists, etc., that are
"untraceable." These are sometimes called "data havens," though that term,
as used by Bruce Sterling in "Islands in the Net" (1988), tends to suggest
specific places like the Cayman Islands that corporations might use to
store data. I prefer the emphasis on "cypherspace.""

I don't know about trademark law, and about whether "prior use" invalidates
an attempted trademark.  It seems unrealistic for them to lay claim to a
word someone else invented.

Certainly if this company gets a trademark, it'd be interesting to repost
some old posts, or make references to the comic book, Java applet, etc.,
and then see if they demanded that history be expunged.

--TIm May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."