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GaiaX, a company that sells community Net services to ISP's and portals filed for a trademark for "Blog" on March 6 of this year. They issued a press release on June 28 saying that they would reserve the right use the word blog in products and services, but would allow people to use it freely in writing. I think some people have doubts as to whether they will be granted the trademark, but stranger things have happened in Japan. In the past, I think someone trademarked "groupware". I think GaiaX also has a trademarks in some categories on "Avatar."
Anyway, I'm glad SixApart and MovableType don't include the word "blog" in the tradename. ;-P
Have MovableType trademarked "MovableType" in Japan? How about the katakana version? Has the domain been reserved, .co.jp and .jp? If not and I register and squat on it, how much will you pay me to get it back? ;-)
A really annoying thing about the Japanese internet is that you can't just type in the name of a company dot co dot jp, since so many times you end up at a squatter's page. I remember amazon.co.jp was held by some tiny yuugen-gaisha for the longest time.
I'm putting my head on the blog here, but I don't think the b-word will survive in public parlance.
I am curious about blogs. It may be a useful tool for future's community on the Internet.
I'm putting my head on the blog here, but I don't think the b-word will survive in public parlance.