Tim O’Reilly’s business associates, CMP, applied for a servicemark on the phrase ‘Web 2.0′ in the context of conferences, including education conferences, and other live events.
The O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference website seems to misapply the servicemark in the title graphic, where the TM appears as a superscript after the word ‘conference’, clearly implying that a trademark is held for the phrase Web 2.0 Conference.
I had an email exchange with Tim O’Reilly about this:
Me: How long does it take to change a logo on a website? Why was it misapplied in the first place?
TO’R: Over the weekend, fwiw
Me: CMP is still misapplying the trademark symbol on the conference website.
TOR : Actually, it’s as simple as the fact that MediaLive applied for the trademark and O’Reilly didn’t know about it, and we were responsible for the web site.
So this seems pretty clear, doesn’t it? It seems that Tim O’Reilly is saying the TM is misapplied (which is true) and that it’ll take a weekend to fix.
However, in a later email, O’Reilly wrote:
I think is legitimate, for someone who originates a concept (especially in a particular context) to protect it. Hence, O’Reilly’s use of the TM symbol after The Web 2.0 Conference title on our web site
Which now seems to be suggesting the misuse of the TM was intentional. Which makes one wonder if Tim O’Reilly knows what the hell Tim O’Reilly is up to.
