[ih] Early use of the "Internet" term (1977)

[John Gilmore]

There were several companies who had used the word "INTERNET" to describe
their products.  None of these were "the Internet", of course.  The most
troublesome was a small network of bank ATMs that had a trademark on
Internet and tried to enforce it against people who used the word to
describe the global telecommunications network.  The Internet Society
had to spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers to
free up the name for generic use.

See e.g. "9. Trademark Defense" in:

  https://www.internetsociety.org/board-of-trustees/minutes/8

	John