rickman wrote in :

If they have not registered the trademark in the US they can't complain
in the US that you are violating anything. You can also search on
Yamaha and it will show all trademarks they own. But I'm sure they
don't have a trademark on DX7.


I'm in the UK, but I'll assume it may not differ much. You may be right,
they may not keep a trademark on that name, they may have dropped it the
moment they started with SY77, TG77 and SY00, th e'second generation' FM
synths. It just seems weird to me though, because as you say, it being their
first great success in FM, they might want to keep it in case of some big
revival. So I ask them. I can think of no better course of action, other than
to bounce ideas off people whose opinions are worth hearing. I'm doing ok
here. I got more useful responses to my ideas here than any other place
I've tried. The people I know in 'real life' have not been able to suggest
anything. I've held off sounding out the people most likely to be interested
in my work so far though, because I don't want to give away too many clues to
what may be the most shark-infested water out there. Besides, I can make
my instrument even without them, what I cannot do alone is figure out the
best protection for it, and any honest professional familiar with patents and
such may be as good as I'll find short of paying a lawyer. And if I do, I
want to know what to tell them to save time...