How about a word processor called Word Perfect?
In fact, neither Word nor Office are registered trademarks, for the reason the GP said - they are generic, what trademark law calls "merely descriptive".

Maybe that's a good first step, maybe not.
Ending the contest would screw over the people already involved.
They've spoken to Barr and it's entirely possible he indicated he would rather then not shut it down at this point.
It's also possible that they're stupid.

Adecco has publicly admitted it was "a mistake" and they want to "make it right".
So at this point there's no question they were in the wrong. It's just a matter of figuring out what to do about it.

* had Adecco offered a settlement WITHOUT admitting they were wrong, that offer couldn't be used against them in court .
Here, they admitted it was a mistake to use that name, and that they need to make it right.

Coke didn't invent soda, Slashdot didn't invent news aggregation and discussion.
What belongs to each of these companies is the NAMES they do business under
In order to know whether you're buying soda made by Coca-Cola or some other company, the law protects the Coke mark.
His mark is Around the World in 80 Jobs. It seems that employees of Arecco contacted Barr, thinking that he was part of the promotion. If their use of the Around the World in 80 Jobs mark confused their own employees, it could certainly confuse the public, making them think Barr was involved in the promotion.

They are protecting Barr. Are you under the impression that just because Adecco typed TM they'll win?
It is pretty clear that Barr's trademark has priority under law and he's virtually guaranteed to win. It seems Barr and Adecco just haven't yet agreed on how much Adecco needs to pay Barr to make up for their employee's misbehavior .

A petabyte disk could hold 250 TB repeated four times, making it robust against scratches.

Read some specs. No, or almost no, digital protocols allow signal levels between 0.4 and 0.6. That is considered "too close to call" because digital normally doesn't permit something that islikely to be erroneous. Slashdot grammar proves that our analog wetware has no problem deciphering error filled signals.

The ability and willingness to learn when a mistake is pointed out publicly makes you smarter than 98% of Slashdotters,I would guess.

what is wrong with a good old fashioned light bulb?

It used energy, and was made of sand. Therefore your 50 cent light bulb needed to be replaced with a $50 biohazard made of mercury and other toxins sold by campaign contributors.
 

To summarize the Yahoo answer, copper wire can carry a range of voltages , so it CAN carry an ANALOG signal.
It can also carry a digital signal like Morse or Baudot, which is what telegrams use.

Radio is exactly the same way - it can carry analog signal such as old fashioned AM ratio, or a digital signal like GSM.

> binary, by itself, doesn't (I'm pretty sure but may be mistaken) confer "digital" status.

The defining distinction between digital and analog is that analog can represent a continuous range, whereas digital can only represent specific values. A phonograph, for example, can represent an infinite range of values between silence and full volume. A CD, on the other hand, can only encode certain volumes, not any in between. That's what makes a phonograph analog and a CD digital. Therefore, binary is BY DEFINITION digital - it uses just two values, not an infinite range

That's good and bad for both. With digital, you get back EXACTLY what you debt, with no degradation. With analog, you can receive a signal even if it can't be received perfectly, because it can receive 0.46 when its not possible to distinguish between 0 and 1.

More than just digital, they are BINARY.

Analog: composed of continuously variable values
Digital: composed of discreet values
Binary: composed of two possible values

Since traditional telegraphs consist of only dots and dashes, they are digital, and binary. If they were analog, they would include "dot and a half", with infinite valid values between dot and dash.

I submit that the guilty can more often be convicted based on good evidence, without a questionable interrogation .
Therefore, removing questionable interrogations benefits the innocent more.

Without the fifth:
Innocent person is convicted based on questionable interrogation
Guilty person is convicted based on questionable interrogation

With the fifth amendment:
Innocent is not even interrogated .

Guilty person is convicted on the basis of independent evidence .

The fifth means the state has to PROVE their case, not just bully a random suspect.

You two should suggest these ideas to your congressman. Something along those lines could work. It might actually get passed because the dems have never seen a tax they didn't like, and the repubs like ideas that could help businesses operate more efficiently, spending time providing products and services instead of fighting lawsuits. Both parties might like this.

As a small inventor myself, doing R&D and rendering those inventions as software, I wouldn't mind a system where I could declare the value at "no more than $500,000" and the fee would be proportional.

That should say a three year warranty, unaffected by TBs written.