There are things about trademark law that people frequently fail to understand. A trademark only applies to the specific trade. In the case of Boeing's Apache, it only applies to helicopters. Windows (i.e., Microsoft) is a trademarked name (though there are those who argue that under current trademark laws, they shouldn't have been granted a trademark on a common word, but that's another argument/discussion), BUT I can open the Windows Pancake House and Microsoft can't do diddly squat about it because it's not the same trade and I'm in no way competing with them. A trademark is to protect the "mark" (name, logo, etc.) under which you "trade". It is NOT an all-inclusive exclusive right to use a word or name. Ford may well have a trademark on the name Ford, but it doesn't stop people from using the name in many, many capacities. So long as they don't use the logo (which is trademarked) or produce a vehicle with the name Ford, there's no conflict. In fact, when Apple Computers started doing business under the name Apple, Apple Corps (the Beatles' company) brought a trademark lawsuit. It was settled, as I recall, by Apple agreeing to stay out of the music business, and Apple Corps agreeing to stay out of the computer business. When Apple released the iPod, there was legal trouble, though, because it was deemed to be a violation of the agreement. The iPod, you see, is for playing music, and violates the prior agreement. And none of the above kept Gwyneth Paltrow from naming her child Apple, and none of it would stop me from opening some other business unrelated to computers and music which also has the name Apple. Big corporations don't always win, either. A man whose last name is Nissan and who owns a domain with his name won a lawsuit brought against him by the car company. He argued that the name Nissan was a month of the Jewish calender as well as his last name, that his business/website in no way capitalized on the car company's name, and the court agreed. Point of all this is that the concept that if a name is trademarked nobody else can ever use it again forever and ever is total nonsense. A trademark protects a name, logo, or similar singularly identifiable thing within a specific trade, and nothing more or less. bonni

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