Re: "Commodore" brand

Yes. So does the user manual. There can be a number of areas that copyrights can apply. IC masks can be potentially copyrighted. While it would be a rather unusual case but so does schematics are copyrightable much like architectural or engineering blueprints.

As a Pictorial work, it could be potentially copyrighted. Whether they were registered or not by Commodore also depends on the copyright laws at the time. New amendments to the copyright laws since the 1980s may be applied retroactively. 



> On March 1, 2020 3:00 PM William Levak <wlevak_at_sdf.org> wrote:
> 
>  
> To clarify what I said:  The ARTWORK that produced IC masks is 
> copyrightable, the same as any other artwork.
> 
> The IC masks themselves may, or may not be copyrightable, subject to the 
> usual conditions.
> 
> On Sat, 29 Feb 2020, smf wrote:
> 
> >
> > On 24/02/2020 18:46, William Levak wrote:
> >> The artwork that produced IC masks was always copyrightable.
> >> 
> > Not sure that is true, mask rights came quite recently.
> >
> > There were several patents MOS took out on the 6502, which Ricoh cut out
> > of their rip off chip for Nintendo (which is why BCD mode doesn't work
> > on a NES). There was nothing commodore could do about it, because there
> > was no protection for the masks.
> >
> >
> > On 24/02/2020 14:45, geneb wrote:
> >> In the US, the act of creating a work automatically bestows copyright.
> >> However, if you want to be able to sue for infringement, it needs to
> >> be registered. (https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html)
> >> 
> > You can register it just before you file the suit though. You will only
> > get statutory damages and costs if you had registered it before the
> > infrigement (or within three months of publication, but that ship has
> > long sailed) but you would be able to get a court order and if that is
> > ignored then the infringer is going to be in a whole load of trouble.
> >
> >
> >
> 
> wlevak_at_sdf.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.org