Forever hold your peace! ... and a little story

Well, the deadline has passed and not a single evidence challenging my claim
as the sole creator of the 'steins has been posted to the "Call for evidence"
thread. My claim encompasses ascii picture material, naming of the 'stein
characters, and storylines.

Therefore (and sorry for being so direct): "Forever hold your peace!"

This is good news for me, the Yangsteins, and the ascii community at large.
Let me share the little trademark story below for the celebration.

I wish I could share a copyright story, but I don't have any. Nevertheless,
the little story below is a true story that got me a little scared at the
time. In hindsight, though, the whole episode appears amusing rather than
anything else.



THE TRADEMARK STORY

About half a year ago, I received an email requesting the removal of the
cartoon "The Two Tenors" from my website.

The email explained that "The Two Tenors" is a registered trademark of two
tenors who travel around the globe, giving world class performances in the
finest opera houses and concert halls that this planet has to offer.

The email then complained that searching Yahoo! leads people to my website
rather than to theirs. 

And indeed, trying that myself, my cartoon appeared, to my own surprise, at
the number one spot, followed by "The Two Tenors" who in turn appeared, and
this is another surprise, ahead of "The Three Tenors" who are even more famous
by far.

Although the email did not say that, it is clear that "The Two Tenors" spent a
lot of money on web advertising to surpass (on the web) "The Three Tenors"
only to find me at the very top!

I too wondered how that could happen. The most probable explanation is that my
first visitors were indeed strays who were attracted by the intensive
advertisement campaign of "The Two Tenors" but landed on my website by
mistake. However, these visitors then liked what they saw on my website and I
got more hits by word of mouth.

And that's probably how I got at the number one spot on Yahoo! for a couple of
weeks anyway. Shall I egomaniacally add, that I do get confirmations of this
kind that by far outshine the mundane things that are sometimes voiced here on alt.ascii-art?

How did the trademark email continue? Well, there was no real continuation. I
checked the trademark registration date and found out that my cartoon predates
that. But more importantly, they and me were deemed to operate in different,
mutually non-interfering areas of the economy.

In plain English, they had no legal case against me. On the other hand, I did
not have the least desire to enter into a legal dispute with them either. So,
I simply did nothing, i.e. I kept the cartoon on my website and I did not
respond to the email. A follow-up email never arrived ... and that was the end
of it. 

Presumably they recognized on their own, subsequent to that one email, that
the case has no merit, and they dropped the case on their own. And so, this
little story too has a happy ending!

That's all folks!

01WW5WWW10WWWW5WWW20WWWW5WWW30WWWW5WWW40WWWW5WWW50WWWW5WWW6062
02                                                          02
03  Frogstein and Birdstein, The Two Tenors                 03
04  by Pete Casso 970125                                    04
05                                                          05
06                   Hi Frogstein!                          06
07                  Please meet my cousin Roosterstein!     07
08                 /                                        08
09              _          Nice to meet you, Roosterstein!  09
10     /(      ( ">         \                               10
11  (\( ">    <( <)           oo.                           11
12   `(> )>     ^^           (-  )                          12
13     ^^                     " "                           13
14                                                          14
15                   Frogstein is the tenor in the pond!    15
16                  He likes to sing in the evening!        16
17                 /                                        17
18               _              *Ahem*                      18
19     /(      <" )              /                          19
20  (\( ">     (> )>          oo.                           20
21   `(> )>     ^^           (-  )                          21
22     ^^                     " "                           22
23                                                          23
24           What a nice coincidence!                       24
25          I am the tenor in the barn!                     25
26         I like to sing in the morning!                   26
27        /      _                                          27
28     /(      <" )                                         28
29  (\( ">     (> )>          oo.                           29
30   `(> )>     ^^           (-  )                          30
31     ^^                     " "                           31
32                                                          32
33                      Great! We work well together!       33
34                       I keep people awake all night,     34
35                        and you rub that in at dawn!      35
36   !?      !?  _         \                                36
37      /(      ( ">        \                               37
38  (\ ( ">    (> )>          oo.                           38
39   `(> )>     ^^           (-  )                          39
40     ^^                     " "                           40
41                                                          41
42WW5WWW10WWWW5WWW20WWWW5WWW30WWWW5WWW40WWWW5WWW50WWWW5WWW6062

================================================================
[]                                                            []
[]   /(      )\     Visit the Gallery of the 'steins!         []
[]  ( ">    <" )   http://www3.sympatico.ca/petecasso/        []
[]   (> )><( <)   Woodpeckersteins dancing the boogie-woogie  []
[]     ^^  ^^                                                 []
================================================================

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