From: Norman Diamond  16-Feb-1998 0859 <diamond@jrdv04.enet.dec-j.co.jp>
To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Rubik lawyers up in arms over website

David Byrden wrote:

>I got a letter from a Washington
>firm of lawyers about a week ago, saying
>that they were the advisers to Seven Towns
>Limited, holders of the 'Rubik' trademark.
>The site was "diluting" the value of the
>trademark and causing "customer confusion".

Fine.  Please restore your web site, but say:

"Please enjoy these puzzles yourself.  However, we
cannot honor the famous Dr. Rubik because his lawyers
won't let us honor him."

>I was engaging in "unfair competition"
>(despite not selling or distributing anything
>or taking any money or having any advertising
>on the site).

It doesn't matter if you take money or not.  I thought it
didn't hurt if you had advertisements honoring Dr. Rubik,
but ...

Well, I guess everyone had better remove Rubik's signature
from our instances of his merchandise, because whenever we
play with one of his products, we're advertising his name
illegally.  [Note:  This is the only sarcastic sentence
in this message.  Please take the rest seriously.]

>        Not only did they want the word 'Rubik'
>removed from the website, they wanted one of
>the Java puzzles removed as well. They called it
>an "electronic version of the RUBIK'S CUBE".
>Fair enough, being a hexahedron sliced into 26
>equal parts it bore a certian visual resemblance,
>but obviously there was none of their mechanism
>involved. It was all brand-new software.

It is true that none of their mechanism is involved.
Therefore I believe their patent doesn't apply.  That is,
if they actually still have a pattent, after Ishige and
some American who preceded all of them (whose name I've
forgotten) ...  but wait, it's been more than 20 years
(or 17 in the US), so ALL their patents have expired.

So don't honor Dr. Rubik.  Please restore all of your
mathematical puzzles.

-- Norman Diamond               diamond@jrdv04.enet.dec-j.co.jp
[Speaking for Norman Diamond not for Digital.]

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Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 20:23:38 -0500