Here is John's message: <snip> "I would like to speak in favor of the motion (copied and pasted below) which is currently before the USGenWeb Advisory Board (Motion 00-29A). I believe it will best allow USGenWeb to trademark, and thus legally protect, our name. Why? Because I believe that "USGenWeb" (rather than "The USGenWeb Project") is what the Board should seek to trademark in the Project's name. The alternative course of action appears to be to accept the trademarking of "USGenWeb Archives" by one or more members of the Project in the hopes that the Advisory Board can still trademark "The USGenWeb Project" in the name of the Project. One problem with this approach, it seems to me, is that this makes "USGenWeb" a non-unique mark, and thus opens up the possibility for other individuals or groups to trademark any other combinations of words which include "USGenWeb" -- for example, "The USGenWeb Census Project" or "The Non-Profit USGenWeb Project" or "The USGenWeb Internet Genealogical Society" or "The USGenWeb Local History Network" or....well, you get the idea. (Not that I'm saying that anyone would attempt to trademark any of these names; they are merely illustrative of a myriad of possibilities.) If the Advisory Board is able to trademark "USGenWeb" in the Project's name as a unique mark, however, that will give the Project control over "USGenWeb-anything" (Archives, Census Project, Advisory Board, Tombstone Project, etc.) Thus, I encourage the Board to adopt the motion currently on the floor." <snip>