zz: ZigZag patent and trademark [Was: **** Instant Outlining !!! ***]

[Ted Nelson <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Jack Park:

Just to clear up a couple of trademark and patent matters:
 You say

>> I know of no patent infringement issues; zigzag was published a long time
>> ago and I know of no patents on it.  

The patent is:
United States Patent  6,262,736    July 17, 2001 
  "Interactive connection, viewing, and maneuvering system for
 complex data".

You say
>>Ted's gonna have trouble with
>> trademarks.  Just google zigzag to see why.

There are many uses of "ZigZag".  The U.S. trademark on the use of
 the name "ZigZag" for computer software was registered to me this
 year.

The registered trademark of "ZigZag" for software has no bearing
 on the possible use of the trademark "ZigZag" by others for
 nightclubs, perfume, cruises, condoms, floor tiling or whatever.

Cheers, Ted Nelson


>----- Original Message -----
>From: Jack Park <jackpark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <ba-ohs-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 8:16 AM
>Subject: Re: [ba-ohs-talk] Node Sequencing [Was: **** Instant Outlining !!!
>***]
>
>
>> I know of no patent infringement issues; zigzag was published a long time
>> ago and I know of no patents on it.  OTOH, the gzz folks used to call
>> themselves GZigZag and, at the urgings of Ted, dropped all references to
>> ZigZag for trademark reasons. Ted's gonna have trouble with
>> trademarks.  Just google zigzag to see why.
>>
>> No, you shouldn't back off anything.  I'm watching some really terrific
>> creativity at work here.  I just injected zigzag to add a bit of
>> spice.  Frankly, zigzag is one of those technologies that captivates me in
>> a BigWay(tm), but, also frankly, I hate playing with gzz; it may well be
>> that I'm not able to think in enough dimensions at the same time to make
>it
>> worthwhile, though I confess that watching Ted run it in his demos is an
>> awesome site to behold.
>>
>> Jack
>>
>>
>> At 04:09 PM 4/23/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>> >Jack Park wrote:
>> >
>> >>At 10:21 AM 4/23/2002 +0000, Murray Altheim wrote:
>> >[...]
>> >>I am watching this and it occurs to me that this discussion is roaming
>> >>awfully close to describing Ted Nelson's ZigZag
>http://xanadu.com/zigzag/
>> >>  and also at http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/gzz/, an open source Java
>> >> program based on the zigzag structure.
>> >[...]
>> >>http://xanadu.com/zigzag/tutorial/ZZwelcome.html is a tutorial: "A half
>> >>an hour that might change your life!"
>> >>You simply must read the tutorial and play with gzz; there is no way I
>> >>can explain it other than with this visualization: imagine tiny cells of
>> >>addressable information existing in a large container.  Then, imagine
>> >>taking needle and thread and stitching together into a string (a
>> >>dimension!) whatever cells you like.  Then imagine another dimension
>> >>stitching together more cells (and some of those already captured in
>> >>another dimension).  Do this for a while and you have a massive,
>> >>multidimensional representation of whatever those cells are about.  Now,
>> >>you need to pull views out of that space.  That's what the gzz interface
>> >>does.  With visual tricks, it gives you an approximation of any 3
>> >>dimensions you want to see at the same time.
>> >
>> >
>> >Jack,
>> >
>> >
>> >Are you saying that this has already been done and I should lay off
>> >the idea in order to avoid a patent infringement lawsuit?
>> >
>> >Yikes!
>> >
>> >Murray
>> >
>> >PS. Thanks for the link. I'll take a look.
>> >......................................................................
>> >Murray Altheim                  <http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/>
>> >Knowledge Media Institute
>> >The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK
>> >
>> >      In the evening
>> >      The rice leaves in the garden
>> >      Rustle in the autumn wind
>> >      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu
>>
>>
>
>
_________________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson      ?      Designer      ?      Consultant   
Senior Fellow, the McLuhan Institute, Toronto, Canada
Visiting Professor, University of Southampton, England
 ?  e-mail: ted@xxxxxxxxxx   ?  world-wide fax 1/415/332-0136
 ?  http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/    ?  http://www.xanadu.net
 ? Coordinates in USA      Tel. 415/ 331-4422
  Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965
_________________________________________________