[Info-vax] [Attn: HP Employees] PDP-11 OS hobbyist licensing

[JF Mezei]

On 13-10-02 17:32, Bill Gunshannon wrote:

> Ridiculous as they never stopped using the Esso trade mark.

When standard oil was broken up,  many broken up  companies had rights
to "standard oil" in their own state/geography.  The one in New Jersey
went with Esso, which was a play on Standard Oil (SO) as well as Eastern
States Standard Oil.

But when ESSO expanded outside its original territory, it eventually
bought a company that competed against a former Standard Oil company who
asserted their exclusive right to the Standard Oil trademark in that
geography and blocked "ESSO". So the new jersey compamy renamed itself
"Exxon" which allowed it to expand throughout the USA without trademark
infringement with former Standard Oil companies.