Trademark Registration  The Lanham Act provides federal protection for distinctive marks that are used in commerce.  See 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051 et seq.  Federal protection for unregistered marks is generally available under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), which creates a civil cause of action for claims of false designation of origin and false advertising.  Although registration is not a prerequisite to federal trademark protection, registered marks enjoy significant advantages over unregistered marks including: registration serves as nationwide constructive notice of ownership and use of the mark under 15 U.S.C. § 1072; and a registered mark may achieve incontestable status after five years of continuous use under15 U.S.C. § 1065, which enhances the owner's rights by eliminating a number of defenses to claims of infringement.  Unregistered trademarks may also be protected at the state level by statute and/or common law.  Under state common law, trademarks are protected as part of the law of unfair competition.  State statutes vary, but most states have either adopted a version of the Model Trademark Bill (MTB), which provides for trademark registration, or the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA), which does not.   http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/trademark

The symbol ^TM is used to provide notice of a claim of rights in a trademark.  A ^TM is usually used in connection with an unregistered trademark and is used to inform potential infringers that a term, slogan, logo, or other indicator is being claimed as a trademark.  The symbol ^SM functions similarly to the ^TM symbol, but is used in connection with services, such as banking services or legal services, rather than tangible goods.  The ^® symbol is a notice of registered ownership used in many countries or regions to advise the public that a trademark or service mark is registered and providing constructive notice of the legal ownership status of the mark with which it is used.   There is some flexibility on how and where to use the ^TM, ^SM and ^® symbols.  Placing it at the upper right hand corner, the lower right hand corner, or level with the mark or logo itself are all typically acceptable ways of displaying the appropriate symbol.  These symbols are most often placed adjacent to the mark in superscript (smaller, raised) form. EXAMPLE: COCA-COLA^®.  The ^TM, ^SM or ^® need only appear with the first or most prominent mention of a mark in all documentation, such as press releases, articles, and company reports.  http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/TrademarkSymbolsFactSheet.aspx

What two U.S. presidents belonged to the Whig party?  Find the answer at http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/oct/15/us-presidents-listed

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."  The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade.  President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Waterloo, New York, as the "Birthplace of Memorial Day," because it began a formal observance on May 5, 1866.  However, Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, also claims to have held the first observance, based on an observance dating back to October 1864.  Indeed, many other towns also lay claim to being the first to hold an observance.  In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended the honor to all soldiers who died in American wars.  A few states continue to celebrate Memorial Day on May 30.  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may30.html

There are few genres with as much staying power as Arthurian literature.  It began around 830 (but Arthur may have been mentioned by a Welsh poet even earlier than that) and these classic tales are still going strong today. King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Merlin the wizard, Mordred, Morgan le Fay, Lancelot, Tristan, Galahad, Gawain and the knights of the round table have legendary status in literature.  Hundreds of books and millions of words have been written about these people and their trials and tribulations, and that’s just the fiction.  The Arthurian ball started rolling when a monk wrote Historia Brittonum for a Welsh king.  This early history book of England and Wales mentions Arthur, and then Geoffrey of Monmouth took the stories and added his own flourishes in Historia Regum Britanniae around 1136.  It was then a free-for-all with anyone who could write (and not many could) retelling these stories.  The strange thing is that these stories about a Welsh-English warrior king, his wife, his knights and a wizard became international bestsellers.  http://www.abebooks.com/books/king-arthur-guinevere-merlin-malory/arthurian-literature.shtml

MK Hume (b. 1948 as Marylin Hume) and Bernard Cornwell (b. 1944) have written trilogies  about Arthur.  Arthur appears as a main or secondary character in plays, movies. TV series, comics, games and  music (Bro Goth Agan Tasow ("Dear Land of Our Fathers"), the official anthem of Cornwall, includes the words: "Kingdom of King Arthur, ancient saints and the Grail/No other land is more beloved.")

The acronym POTUS (the "O" being long, as in "toe") is in common parlance in the White House today, used by in-the-know staffers to refer to the President of the United States.  It is never uttered in addressing him face-to-face.  POTUS long ago existed in the telegraph code that was a bible of the major news wires.  And it is said that when President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled on the Pennsylvania Railroadin his private car, Magellan , POTUS was the cover word employed to identify this important passenger.  The word came into currency during President Jimmy Carter's term, and it was picked up as shorthand by the Secret Service, matching SCOTUS which was becoming the favorite acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States.  Nancy Reagan inspired but may not have originated FLOTUS (rhyming with POTUS) to specify the First Lady.  VPOTUS (pronounced vee-potus) to indicate the vice president was occasionally heard in the same era to refer to George Bush, then holding office.  Its use became ordinary when Al Gore was vice president in Bill Clinton's administration.  The word VEEP to describe the vice president became popular in President Harry Truman's day as a nickname for Vice President Alben W. Barkley, being simply a contracted pronunciation of VP, the common abbreviation for vice president.  http://www.presidentprofiles.com/General-Information/A-History-of-the-Presidency-Potus-unofficial-designation.html

CONUS is an acronym for contiguous United States, which includes the 48 U.S. states on the continent of North America (that are south of Canada) including the District of Columbia.  OCONUS is an acronym for outside the contiguous United States, which includes Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories and Possessions, such as Puerto Rico.  http://www.finance.umich.edu/node/3027  NOTE that the C in CONUS may also stand for continental or conterminous.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1149  May 16, 2014  On this date in 1843, the first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.  On this date in 1866, Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaced it with the five cent piece, or nickel.