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if this was trademarked by Tricerasoft, and SC, CB, PHM, and many others have been advertising their MP3+G discs, is that trademark infringement if they did not get written permission from Tricerasoft first? another thread made me think of this.

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But from what I though I read in the other thread is the trademark on mp3g, even though may have been trademarked, was abandoned on 08 or 09.

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I thought I read it was abandoned June 1 2012.

I don't believe it can be be TM'd. It is a format. It can be patented. It would be like McD's trying to TM hamburger. Now they can TM particular hamburger products names.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

timberieca
you should know what you are talking about before you post

here are the real facts

History of MP3+G

Steve Gray in Jan 1998 wrote WinCDG which was the first MP3+G player [1] and also SJGPlay.

Other products have found a new way to transport the MP3+G pair of files by "zipping" them. A zip file is a data compression format used to compress and contain files together. Containing the MP3+G file pair in the ZIP became known as an "MP3+G Zipped".

Since the creation of the format the technology of MP3+G was first licensed as the Breeze engine by Tricerasoft. It was later released as a codec engine technology to various computer software companies, including;
TouchPoint
PCDJ
DJPower
Alcatech
Hercules
AVA Systems

Two related trademark registration applications were filed, but the USPTO refused registration after they were opposed by a consortium of more or less all of the active manus.

I can't say what anyone else did, but SC did not use the term "MP3+G" while that application was pending, to avoid any issue of trademark infringement. Instead, the GEM discs are referred to as being in the "MP3G" format.

this is from steve j.gary web site

Clarification of Facts
The initial versions (below 1.0) of WinCDG were conceived, written and developed solely by myself
My personal final release of WinCDG (version 0.60, released in 2000) is copyrighted solely by myself
My WinCDG played MP3+G before Tyrannosoft was formed and before any collaboration or involvement by Gai Marcos
Tyrannosoft was co-founded by myself and Gai Marcos in 2000, two years after WinCDG was released
Tyrannosoft was still operating when, without my knowlege, Tricerasoft was formed
With the formation of Tricerasoft Gai effectively LEFT the company to go on his own
Claims that Tyrannosoft was RENAMED to Tricerasoft are false
I have never been a part of Tricerasoft, nor have I received any money from them (or Gai)
As equal partner, I did not consent or authorize any other group, company, or individual to use software created by Tyrannosoft
As an individual, at no time did I transfer copyright of any of my software to Gai, or Tricerasoft
Tricerasoft has no agreement, or licence to use, or sell, any Tyrannosoft software, or use intellectual property, software, or procucts prior to the formation of, nor during the operation of, Trannosoft

just check
tricerasoft web site
this is still posted of bottm of one of there pages

Copyright ©2009 TriceraSoft. All rights reserved.
MP3+G® is a Registered TradeMark of TriceraSoft
Inventors of MP3+G®

The United States Patent and Trademark office shows no current Trademark on the term MP3+G

http://search.usa.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9 ... mit=Search

It does show 2 "dead" entries

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f= ... bmit+Query

With an abandoned trademark the use is able to be used the same as if it were never registered at all

May still be posted at the bottom of their page....but untrue just the same. (another reason for me to be very weary of them)

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

look here
[url][/url]http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/vwTrdmrk.do?lang=eng&status=OK&fileNumber=1306587&extension=0&startingDocumentIndexOnPage=1
this is in the canadian trademark office

I stand corrected....it is trademarked in Canada.....Better not use it there or there could be problems. Personally still don't trust them as far as I can throw them.

Perhaps there is someone with Legal training that can clarify the use in this country ?

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

i dont know about this one
but in a lot of cases
the u.s. and canadian gov.
uphold a lot of each others tademarks

Correct me if I am wrong here, but wouldn't a patent apply to the technology associated with synching (or whatever their terminology is) of the MP3 + CDG graphics file and a trademark apply to the "MP3+G" logo that we see?

-Chris

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-Chris

Years ago I looked a little into copy-writing code for a program I wrote. Ending up not pursuing it. This would probably fall in that category as well. Maybe a patent for the technology part, but those are tough to get and it can be expensive.

from what I have been able to dissect on the legal sites a patent refers to a tangible item that can be created...Trademarks can apply to both tangibles and intangibles....I am not an expert however.

_________________
"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

this is about the only thing that has bugged me about Tricerasoft. I have always known that they weren't the inventor's of the technology, but I didn't have any proof.

I worked with Steve as my TyrannoSoft partner for 3 years in a basement, agreed both on the "name" MP3+G and TyrannoSoft and it stuck around since '98. When he lost interest in the company I begged him to help me further the company and paced the house for 3 months to decide what to do, I had an anchor for a partner that saw no future in the technology and was not even interested in the profits (he claims it "brought him up a tax bracket and was not interested in paying extra taxes" - I kid you not), he wasn't even interested in running the books let alone write another line of code, and insisted that trademarking in '98 was "expensive" (I listened foolishly ofcourse). I proposed to him that I either purchase the company from him or close it, I ended up doing both - gave him his due money, got him to sign the IP to ME, closed all accounts, and moved on. A month after I opened TriceraSoft and rebuilt the company from the ground up, took 10 years to rebuild. Rewrote all the software products in C++, dumped the original WinCDG that used VB (which Steve still insists to provide), and licensed the technology. In the meantime KMF, WMA+G, and MP3+G were getting popular but no one was aware where it came - no one bothered to ask either (companies like Microsoft were taking it on themselves to use it). Steve was forwarding customers who asked about MP3+G to TriceraSoft for a very long time. But in the meantime I researched trademarking and decided it was time to trademark MP3+G - the trademark gives credit to Steve Gray as my partner in the originating of the format (it does not exclude him), we are [b]BOTH[/b] the creators but I am the OWNER. A fews years ago something crawled up his butt and he insisted that he does not want to forward people to us and change his story that he invented it soley and thus insist that somehow the companies overlapped, which neither are true nor relavant to the technology (which he is [b]ALREADY[/b] half acredited for). And yes we have the trademark because we came up with the name and the technology. You can make up whatever conspiracies you want on this forum, but you are not taking away from us the one and only founding moments and fact of this industry. Most KJs on this forum wouldn't exist if we hadn't created that format and the players to support it. We are not asking for donations, but a simple thank you would be nice.

CB and their affiliates have a written agreement with us by the way and so do many others. Those using it without, are using it illegally.

thanks
now here is the big ????
does sound choice have written agreement to use
thank you

Visit here:

http://www.tricerasoft.com/mp3glicense.html

once again thank you

now with your trade mark
mp3+g
is the code in mp3g the same code in mp3+g

if so how much of the reg trademark
has to change before its not the same trade mark

would both of these still be your trade mark
mp3g
mp3+g
in a court of law

and if the code is the same in both

then sound choice is using your code in the gem s
i think ???
and i dont see there name on your list