At 6:52 PM -0700 10/5/97, Bill Stewart wrote:

Sigh. A company called I-Planet is trying to trademark the term "Cypherspace", even though we've been using it for a couple of years in the cypherpunk community. They're doing an IPSEC Virtual Private Network, with friendly HTML administration; http://www.i-planet.com/P2cypherpb.html . Looks like interesting stuff, and I wish them luck except in TMing the name :-)

I looked on AltaVista and HotBot, and the earliest reference I found was from a 1994 article by Tim May. I'd be interested in finding any earlier refs. There's also a line of comic books using the name, and a Java Applet from 1996, plus references from I-Planet in late 96 and 97. Anybody know if the term's been used in print in the dead-tree press?

http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6095/assorted-short-pieces/may-police-state.txt 05- Oct-94

Seems to me I-Planet can't trademark a word which has been in usage by many of us for several years. What could they do, demand that we stop using a word we in all likelihood coined? Remove our old writings from the Web? (How?) We were using the term "cypherspace" in '93-94, especially in the physical meetings in Mountain View. I recall first hearing it from Eric Hughes, who may have gotten it from Jude Milhon, or elsewhere. The context was of a new slogan: "In cypherspace no one can read your screen." (This being a takeoff on the "Aliens" tag line: "In space no one can hear you scream.") This usage was probably around mid-1993. I started using it to describe the obvious thing, the "space" our messages, list, etc. live in. There are references in my Cyphernomicon, published in September '94, but written over the previous 8 months, to cypherspace, as in the section on "Data Havens," where I wrote: "One of the powerful uses of strong crypto is the creation of journals, web sites, mailing lists, etc., that are "untraceable." These are sometimes called "data havens," though that term, as used by Bruce Sterling in "Islands in the Net" (1988), tends to suggest specific places like the Cayman Islands that corporations might use to store data. I prefer the emphasis on "cypherspace."" I don't know about trademark law, and about whether "prior use" invalidates an attempted trademark. It seems unrealistic for them to lay claim to a word someone else invented. Certainly if this company gets a trademark, it'd be interesting to repost some old posts, or make references to the comic book, Java applet, etc., and then see if they demanded that history be expunged. --TIm May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

At 06:52 PM 10/5/97 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote:

Sigh. A company called I-Planet is trying to trademark the term "Cypherspace", even though we've been using it for a couple of years in the cypherpunk community.

All this fuss is really not such a big deal, as long as the Patent and Trademark Office <http://www.uspto.gov> hears about it. I know nothing about trademark procedure, but I imagine that a letter (or three) to the PTO referencing the right application number on it could scotch an application but quick. Printing out email and adding a stamp seems almost sufficient. Maybe the nice folks at i-planet (I know you're getting this) could just post their application number and save us the trouble of finding it ourselves? And I checked: The fee for a formal _ex parte_ appeal filing is only $100. I'm sure the i-planet lawyers will spend far more than that defending one of those. Eric

Bill Stewart wrote:

Sigh. A company called I-Planet is trying to trademark the term "Cypherspace", even though we've been using it for a couple of years in the cypherpunk community. They're doing an IPSEC Virtual Private Network, with friendly HTML administration; http://www.i-planet.com/P2cypherpb.html . Looks like interesting stuff, and I wish them luck except in TMing the name :-)

What these guys are selling is an embedded unix box with some crypto code in the kernel, plus socks, sendmail, named, apache, and some fax software pre-installed, for $5000. Pretty high price for a 100 mhz FreeBSD box, tho I suspect they have substantial tech support costs. I saw no mention of trademark claims for "cypherspace" on their web site.