"That doesn't count!"

[C.E. Evans]

Not unless they plan to reboot it with a starship other than the Enterprise, anyway. The term "U.S.S. Enterprise" is a registered trademark of CBS now (earlier, it belonged to Paramount for a number of years).

Apparently the U.S. Navy was allowed to continue using the name.

Seriously.

Yeah, I'd love to CBS try to actually enforce that trademark claim... Not likely...

If you look real hard at the fantail of the USS Enterprise CVN-65. You can see a tiny "TM" after the last "e". Tiny as in 12 inch letters.

You can find trademark signs on the packaging of any Star Trek merchandise these days featuring the name "U.S.S Enterprise." Readers of Star Trek novels will notice it on the back covers of recent books featuring the full name too. It's also on the front cover of the Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual, which detailed the Enterprise-D.

There was a story that when the trademark belonged to Paramount, they tried to sue the U.S. Navy for selling any merchandise named "U.S.S. Enterprise," but backed down when they realized a fight with the Navy could result in an injunction of the name being used by Paramount while the case was pending.
http://wemakezines.ning.com/forum/topics/paramount-pictures-tried-to

 

[MacLeod]

Not unless they plan to reboot it with a starship other than the Enterprise, anyway. The term "U.S.S. Enterprise" is a registered trademark of CBS now (earlier, it belonged to Paramount for a number of years).

Apparently the U.S. Navy was allowed to continue using the name.

Seriously.

Yeah, I'd love to CBS try to actually enforce that trademark claim... Not likely...

If you look real hard at the fantail of the USS Enterprise CVN-65. You can see a tiny "TM" after the last "e". Tiny as in 12 inch letters.

I think the point would be would CBS win a legal battle for it against the US Military. It is possible that the curt would rule something along the lines of. CBS/Parammount hold rights to the Trademark U.S.S. Enterprise except against names of ships.

It would still protect CBS/Paramount's TM for merchandise etc.. but not prevent anyone from naming their ship U.S.S. Enterprise if they so wished.

The situtation reminds me a bit of when the BBC was taken to court by the Police for the rights to the Blue Police Box. Suffice to say the court found in favour of the BBC. I think for a number of reasons. The Police hadn't really objected before, it was more linked with DW than with the Police. But that is an object rather than a name,

 

[MikeS]

I'm not jewish, but I never saw Ferengi as jews either, just, as the previous poster said, extreme capitalists.
Bajorans, on the other hand... a spiritual people that was slaughtered by the fascist/militaristic Cardassian Empire occupation force... hard not to see a connection there.

This whole line of discussion just goes to show how subjective the analysis of Star Trek is.

I agree that Ferengi = extreme capitalists, some of the traits that brought down Wall Street and brought about a global crash.

But Bajorans? I thought they represented the Palastinians and Cardassians the Israeli's (state not people).

 

[Forbin]

What the heck would CBS like to, have the Navy rename the Enterprise? Or just stop using it?

Hm. Come to think of it, this may pose a problem getting another carrier named Enterprise after CVN-65 retires. Uh oh.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Yeah, I'd love to CBS try to actually enforce that trademark claim... Not likely...

If you look real hard at the fantail of the USS Enterprise CVN-65. You can see a tiny "TM" after the last "e". Tiny as in 12 inch letters.

I think the point would be would CBS win a legal battle for it against the US Military. It is possible that the curt would rule something along the lines of. CBS/Parammount hold rights to the Trademark U.S.S. Enterprise except against names of ships.

It would still protect CBS/Paramount's TM for merchandise etc.. but not prevent anyone from naming their ship U.S.S. Enterprise if they so wished.

It would be a case of preventing another studio creating their own spaceship TV series or movie from having a ship called "U.S.S. Enterprise" (the term "Starship Enterprise" is also trademarked by CBS).

What the heck would CBS like to, have the Navy rename the Enterprise? Or just stop using it?

Hm. Come to think of it, this may pose a problem getting another carrier named Enterprise after CVN-65 retires. Uh oh.

I think it's just in regards to the selling of merchandise with the name, but it doesn't include any by the U.S. Navy.

 

[The Wormhole]

The situtation reminds me a bit of when the BBC was taken to court by the Police for the rights to the Blue Police Box. Suffice to say the court found in favour of the BBC. I think for a number of reasons. The Police hadn't really objected before, it was more linked with DW than with the Police. But that is an object rather than a name,

As I understand it, British police stopped using police boxes and as time went by the police box was more and more recognized as the TARDIS than a police box. Eventually, BBC copyrighted the police box look. When British police wanted to start using police boxes again, they were required to make it look different than the TARDIS design, or pay royalties.

 

[Tiberius]

As I understand it, British police stopped using police boxes and as time went by the police box was more and more recognized as the TARDIS than a ploice box. Eventually, BBC copyrighted the police box look. When British police wanted to start using police boxes again, they were required to make it look different than the TARDIS design, or pay royalties.

lol @ ploice. Sounds like a funny accent!

 

[The Wormhole]

Typos suck.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I've never seen the Jewish-Ferengi connection. I always saw them as a commentary on extreme capitolism, nothing more.

Australia doesn't have a very large Jewish community. My club's take on the Ferengi, in the late 80s, was that they were a parody of Star Trek convention hucksters. From then on, we renamed the traders' area of our local conventions and gatherings "The Ferengi Bazaar".

 

[Endgame]

Wow. I guess that the ending of VOY is sometimes unacceptable. I guess that the end cannot always justify the means. We must then remove the end from the canon. But, that leads to the need to remove the new end from the canon -- and to a potentially infinite regress. And, of course, fictional media reality is also a part of the real world reality -- so, the real world would have to be removed too. Maybe we can be removed to an alternate reality. Oh no, but those have endings too.... So, we can kiss the ends goodbye. Front or rear end of the world? Or, an infinite set of alternate ends? The end is nigh!