Originally Posted by MarioD
Mike, I was working in research at Kodak when that song came out. Kodak wanted the registered trademark symbol ® instead of demanding copyright infringement and stopping playing it because it was free advertising for our film.

Interesting spin on what really happened. There is no copyright on titles nor individual words nor was there any in the 1909 version of Title 17 when the song was released—nothing to demand in that regard.

Paul Simon and someone at Eastman Kodak sat down and worked it out—lawyers were never involved. Later, when Kodak tried to license the song for advertising, the attorneys could not work out a satisfactory deal until the 1990s.

Trademark is different and Kodak was/is aggressive about protecting theirs—as they should be. Aspirin, Zipper and Thermos are three brands fell into the public domain through a process commonly called "genericide" due to the owners not being aggressive enough to protect their property. The BBC and Australia self-censored airplay since, at the time, they did not allow commercial names in songs over the radio but Kodak had no hand in that.

BIAB 2026 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia/Tahoe, M1 & M5 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, Logic, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScore/Notion/Overture