William Gibson and the trademarking of cyberspace
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Autodesk tried to trademark 'cyberspace'; Gibson's retaliation rumor was a Leary prank.
Eric Gullichsen recounts working at Autodesk's VR lab in 1989, which applied to trademark 'cyberspace'. William Gibson objected via lawyers. Timothy Leary, a friend of Gullichsen, spread a rumor that Gibson retaliated by trademarking 'Eric Gullichsen'. The rumor was later amplified by John Perry Barlow and Rudy Rucker. Gullichsen and Gibson later met at Art Futura 1990 in Barcelona and resolved the matter. The trademark application was real; the counter-trademark story was a prank.
What commenters are saying
Commenters noted that 'cyberpunk' has been successfully trademarked, despite being a genre name, drawing parallels to trademarks for 'Choose Your Own Adventure' and 'Olympic Games'. A subthread debated the merits of NATO straps vs. Zulu straps for military use. Another discussion covered the history of the pseudonymous Netochka Nezvanova and her Max/MSP plugin 'NATO.0+55+3d'. Some argued that trademarking a genre name is problematic but noted that enforcement is often narrow in scope.