Prevue Trademarks

[AriX]

Here are serial numbers of all of the Prevue logo trademarks I could find, which are all dead (meaning we are free to use them as we please ). You can look them up at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=l ... h&p_d=trmk by going to "New User Search Form", typing the number in as a search term, and selecting "Serial or Registration Number" as a field.

Serial 74108440 (The forum's current logo, thanks to swest77)
Serial 74491852
Serial 74295857 (Sneak Prevue, used until 2002, cancelled in 2004)
Serial 75066864 (combination of the Prevue typeface and the Prevue eye style)
Serial 75463258 (like the previous logo, but with Univers instead of the classic Prevue font, cancelled in 2006)

Also, this one I've never seen before: serial 74666499

Apparently this guy: http://www.dwt.com/people/DavidMSilverman managed UVSG's patents and trademarks.

[AriX]

Plus, the eye mark itself: serial 75464749
And, somewhat strangely, Prevue Networks owned a trademark for "rectangles with bars, bands, and lines": serial 75421579

United Video Satellite Group:
Serial 74686160
Serial 74686159

Apparently the i-Guide name, which TV Guide did not start using until 2004 (for the latest version of TV Guide Interactive), was registered in 1996, abandoned in 1999, and then re-registered in 2004, where it is still live (serial 76602006)

[Bolt96]

Wow nice finds AriX! Wonder why they had a trademark on rectangles with bars, bands, and lines lol.

[AriX]

Unfortunately it seems these links are not permalinks, and the USPTO doesn't even offer that sort of thing. I'll have to edit my posts with the registration numbers of these trademarks instead of the links.

[swest77]

Yeah, I saw all of them -- but just in time. Oh well. Might wanna just attach screen captures of each instead.

Anyway, good finds. There's also the one I'm attaching. It backs up what I found in the other thread re: 1981 being the official start of all this. Guess it's September 1981 to be very specific (and February 1988 for Prevue Guide).

@Bolt - Simple really. Barratry. It's common for companies to over-patent, over-copyright (well, before Berne), and over-trademark everything about their products. Say a competitor wanted to write its own EPG software producing a scrolling listings grid. How do you stop them? Well, you can't. But you can discourage them. Though the competitor would win in any lawsuit where the trademark in question was simply a grid of lines -- "sorry, you just can't trademark something that's in use everywhere by everything" would say the judge, the fact the trademark holder could still drag the competitor through court for years costing them millions and millions would be a great "keep off" sign all by itself.

[AriX]

Yeah, I saw all of them -- but just in time. Oh well. Might wanna just attach screen captures of each instead.

Funny! I JUST posted the same thing to the other thread, lol

Also, one more: serial 74561826. This was Prevue Interactive's logo, which can be seen on the bottom of this image of UVSG's headquarters: UVSG.jpg
It can also be found here: http://www.logonica.com/logo.php?id=145408 (Which is a vector that also happens to contain the Prevue typeface, albeit italicized. This can be fixed using Illustrator's "shear" function.)

[swest77]

Yeah, I saw all of them -- but just in time. Oh well. Might wanna just attach screen captures of each instead.

Funny! I JUST posted the same thing to the other thread, lol

Hah! Sorry for the inadvertant race condition there.

Also, one more: serial 74561826. This was Prevue Interactive's logo, which can be seen on the bottom of this image of UVSG's headquarters: UVSG.jpg
It can also be found here: http://www.logonica.com/logo.php?id=145408 (Which is a vector that also happens to contain the Prevue typeface, albeit italicized. This can be fixed using Illustrator's "shear" function.)

Some day, I really would like to find out what font they used for "PREVUE"...

[AriX]

Some day, I really would like to find out what font they used for "PREVUE"...

http://www.dafont.com/dodger.font

[swest77]

Some day, I really would like to find out what font they used for "PREVUE"...

http://www.dafont.com/dodger.font

Heh, thanks. Yeah, I know about Dodger. The thing is, fonts can't be patented, so very often what happens is twenty versions of the same concept end up being "out there" from different font foundaries. In any case, Dodger is very, very similar but has subtle differences in terms of its weighting and construction. Guess I should've said, I'd like to find the version of "Dodger" officially used by UV some day.

[AriX]

Some day, I really would like to find out what font they used for "PREVUE"...

http://www.dafont.com/dodger.font

Heh, thanks. Yeah, I know about Dodger. The thing is, fonts can't be patented, so very often what happens is twenty versions of the same concept end up being "out there" from different font foundaries. In any case, Dodger is very, very similar but has subtle differences in terms of its weighting and construction. Guess I should've said, I'd like to find the version of "Dodger" officially used by UV some day.

Ah, I see. By the way, some of you guys may have found this if you've done a whole bunch of internet research on Prevue, but check this out: http://prevueguide.com/prevuead.jpg. This is from a magazine in 1988... Note the channel is called "Prevue Guide Channel" (with a really distracting and disorganized-looking logo... they got rid of it for a reason) and the slogan "Where the zapper's at." (although it also references the "Just what you're looking for." slogan). Also, the picture looks quite different from how Prevue Guide actually looked in 1988, not sure why that is. The aspect ratio definitely isn't 4:3, and the fonts aren't right. I guess they just had someone draw a rendition of Prevue Guide or something?

Sidenote, Rovi still uses the 1-800-44-PREVU number for their Reading, PA headquarters (out where I am).