> Having enforced trademarks in documentation for a couple of decades now, I'll respond > to this. When an organization owns a trademark, they have to defend it by making sure > that *every. single. instance.* of that trademark that appears in material -- be it > web pages or manuals or T-shirts -- produced by them or by closely allied > organizations (as The Dumping Project is to MAME itself). If they don't do that, but > then later decide to sue some ripoff artist out to make a quick buck by slapping the > organization's trademarked name and logo on something unaffiliated and shoddy, > arbitrators and judges can decide (and have certainly done so in the past) that the > organization only treats the trademark as their property when it suits them to do so, > and that therefore the trademark is void. > > I don't like the looks of the trademark symbols any more than you do -- they're often > a blight on an otherwise clean design -- but I would also be happier to see such a > mark on this kind of merchandise.
based on the zero attempts made to defend it so far, even with blatant violations I'd argue that it's probably already invalid, but that appears to not be a popular opinion and I've been called an asshole for stating it in the past.