Trademarks Lexis and Lexus (was nexis is baffling)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 8 Apr 2007, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> This is a fairly famous case among "forensic" linguists because a
> literature= =20 professor (who is not a linguist) testified that "Lexus"
> and "Lexis" are so=20 different in pronunciation that the likelihood of
> confusion is slight. The j= udge=20 who wrote the majority opinion in
> the case quoted the professor favorably in= =20 finding for the
> defendants. Another professor (a linguist, as I recall, thou= gh=20 I
> don't know his identity) appears to have given a well-rounded
> linguistic=20 opinion, which was quoted by the judge who wrote the
> minority opinion.=20

Thanks to Ron for correcting me as to the expert or experts.  Looking at
the opinion, I find the following: "In everyday spoken English, LEXUS and
LEXIS are virtually identical in pronunciation, notwithstanding testimony
by Professor David M. Yerkes that different pronunciations are possible,
See Prefiled Testimony of David M. Yerkes, Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Dx Y7-B at 9-15, and
defense counsel's laudable attempts at distinguishing the two terms."  I
do not see any identification in any of the opinions of who the other
experts were.

Full Disclosure:  Although I was not involved in this case in any way, I
did write a book about Lexis that was loosely sponsored by the company
that owned Lexis.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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