Greetings Bitcoin Community,
The story I am linking here shows recent comments from this scandalous lawyer person and should raise some very serious concern amongst anyone who, as many of us do, care about their freedom and are strongly opposed to any entity that threatens it!
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110708/00564015004/lawyer-trying-to-trademark-bitcoin-explains-his-legal-theory.shtml What started out as something that appeared to be just some random guy trying to register the trademark 'bitcoin' here in the U.S(Original BC Forum Thread;
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=26527.0) quickly became something very apparent to be much more sinister. My primary reasoning for bringing this to the Italian community, beyond the obvious stated reasons is because in his feedback he gave publicy on TechDirt, he states, "So, is the term “Bitcoin” so notorious in Italy, for example, that when the average Italian on the street hears it, he/she immediately thinks of company zeta, and none other? Absolutely not. The same can be said for virtually every other country, including those with very large economies, such as China. In fact, it is virtually assured that no person or entity can claim that the term “Bitcoin” is identified with them in Italy." The point of which he is trying to convey after stating that Italy is a 'First to File' country was to arrogantly tell us that he thinks he can't be stopped there.
Furthermore, he has made it very clear in his remarks that his intentions are to be able to have the legal backing to be able to harass legitimate users of 'bitcoin' with the sole intention of achieving some monetary or other real world gains surreptitiously in any manner that he can 'legally'(I use the term 'legally' very, very loosley here) get away with it.
I highly recommend that if you have any interests with 'bitcoin' in Italy(or any where else for that matter), be they business or otherwise that you keep close eye on this guy with your Trademark office. Sadly, I know nothing of how one would protest such things in Italy. I can say that in the U.S while someone has newly filed it takes only going to the trademark office online and protesting such a frivolous claim and it cost nothing to do so. What I do know however is that it is much easier to combat such things before they have been snuck through.
One last note. While I highly encourage discussing this matter amongst the community I must stress that caution should be granted to what information we choose to convey publicly. Our lawyer person, while he may be a slimeball and not have a valid leg to stand on has shown that he is no stranger to using any and all things publicly presented in any manner that may benefit himself.
Thank you very much for your time reading this and for your support of a community, currency and ideal that has the potential to truely free us all! If you have any questions, especially with understanding anything in my poor translation please don't hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to clearify anything that is of question to you.
This orginal posting can be found in Italian here;
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=27410.0