Merely descriptive mark Re: [IMPORTANT] Trademark violation for Web Keys

Manu Sporny:
> I've just received a cease and desist related to the Web Keys
> specification. It turns out that a company called BIO-key
> International has a trademark on "WEB-key". I've already done the
> search in the USPTO, and this is a valid claim by BIO-key
> International.
>
> http://www.bio-key.com/products/webkey.html

It seems to be a merely descriptive mark which does not deserve
trademark protection:

http://tmep.uspto.gov/RDMS/detail/manual/TMEP/Oct2012/TMEP-1200d1e6993.xml#/manual/TMEP/Apr2013/TMEP-1200d1e7074.xml

What is the position of W3C management regarding this matter?

Cheers,
Andreas

Received on Thursday, 25 July 2013 20:11:14 UTC