trademarks

["Joseph J. Esposito" <espositoj@xxxxxxx>]

The following appeared on this message group:

>Colleges Demand that Fakedegrees.com Remove Their Names from Its Web
Site
By Dan Carnevale, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 27, 2002
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002082701t.htm

"Officials from several institutions have demanded that a company that
sells fake diplomas over the Internet stop listing the colleges' names
on its Web site. The company, fakedegrees.com, has complied with many of
the cease-and-desist requests, but not all."

JE:  The Chronicle article is interesting in its own right, of course, but I
was wondering if there was debate about trademark law in the digital world
that was comparable to that for copyright.  If there is, I haven't heard it.
While many people assert that (for example) the scientific journals
published by Reed Elsevier should not be protected (or incarcerated,
depending on one's point of views) by copyright, I haven't heard anyone say
that Reed Elsevier's name could be appropriated and applied to a journal
that RE had nothing to do with.  Anyone have information about this?
Stewart Brand famously said that "information wants to be free," but I don't
think anyone has said the same about trademarks.

Joe Esposito