FISHNET name use clarification

FISH2IFR at aol.com
Mon, 15 Jan 1996 17:38:11 -0500

Dear FISHFOLKS, FISH-ECOLOGY, Salmon Listserver and ACN-L :

We at the Institute for Fisheries Resources and PCFFA recently posted
notice to FISHFOLKS of the availability of our free newsletter on west coast
fisheries and habitat conservation issues, which we have named "FishNet
News." This is part of an electronic network which we have termed FISHNET.
Shortly after posting to this mailing group the following notification was
also posted:

===============================================
>>This is a brief notification that the term "FishNet" is a trademark under
registration to the PetsForum Group, Inc. It refers to the service the
PetsForum Group offers on CompuServe as the "Aquaria/Fish Forum". The date
of
first usage was around 1985.

The PetsForum Group has not given permission for any other electronic service
to use this name. This includes what was reported to this list as "FishNet"
and/or "FishNet Alert."

This was most probably an inadvertent usage of the trademark of the PetsForum
Group. Appropriate notices will be sent to the originators of the posted
notice.

PetsForum Group fully supports the free exchange of information about
fisheries. However, "FishNet" is a trademark that involves a considerable
investment in development and will be protected.

Hopefully, this message will clarify the differences between "FishNets" and
help others to avoid unintentional infringements.

I will be pleased to provide confirmation of our trademark registration upon
private electronic mail inquiry.

John Benn, PetsForum Group
On CIS - Animals, Aquaria/Fish, Cats, Dogs, Horses, Vets & Products
On the Net - http://petsforum.com/ <<<

===========================================

We at the Institute for Fisheries Resources and PCFFA regret any confusion
that may have been created between the two similar names, and any
infringement of a registered trademark was purely unintentional. We had no
idea the name was registered by any other user.

For clarification, FISHNET and FishNet News as managed and published by the
Institute for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) is in no way connected to the PetsForum
Group, Inc. Please contact them directly for more information on their
services and products at the Web site listed above.

We expect to work out the use of these names in an amicable way and have
requested their verification. If this prior use is verified we will take
appropriate action to minimize any potential confusion. This may include
obtaining their permission to continue using this name, or it may involve a
change of our name to assure that there would be no likelihood of confusion
between the two. We will of course fully respect any prior trademarked uses,
and have no intention of making any commercial use of these names ourselves
in any way. Both the Institute and PCFFA are non-commercial and nonprofit
organizations dedicated to the public interest.

IN THE MEANTIME, if you wish to subscribe to our newsletter please feel free
to do so by request to: fish1ifr at aol.com and we will put you on our list.
Regardless of the name we may ultimately use for the newsletter, we intend
for it to remain a rich and useful resource for fisheries conservation
information throughout the US Pacific coast region.

If you have reposted our prior announcement we would appreciate it if you
repost this disclaimer to the same list and in the same manner. This will
help minimize any confusion between the two names. Thanks for your
consideration.

-- Glen Spain
(Net Manager)
IFR/PCFFA