Excellent explication of the exposition to date.
Don't get me wrong: as hard as I fight so-called "intellectual
property" in the form of copyrights and patents, I'm all for
(private) enforcement of trademarks. Trading on someone else's
good name is an act of fraud, and it doesn't take a unilateral
act of force to create a trademark as it does to create a
copyright or patent. But there is no possible infringement here.
Arjen, the "solution" to your problem is simple: you have
every right to use the name, there is no reasonable chance
of confusion, Tom is completely out of line, and any
trademark infringement suit would be laughed out of court
before it began.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC