William Gibson and the trademarking of cyberspace
- ID
- 36952
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 19 Oct 2026, 7:37 AM
- Fetched
- 19 Oct 2026, 6:22 PM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://colo.to/cyberspace.html
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 3.0
- Created
- 19 Oct 2026, 6:23 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersstartup_founders
What happened
Eric Gullichsen recounts how Autodesk, while working on early VR in 1989, applied to register a trademark for "cyberspace"; Timothy Leary told him William Gibson was upset, Gullichsen sent a conciliatory letter quoting Gibson's "The street finds its own use for things," and Gibson's lawyers replied. Leary then circulated the rumor that Gibson was retaliating by trying to trademark "Eric Gullichsen," which John Perry Barlow embellished and Rudy Rucker amplified. Gullichsen and Gibson later met at Art Futura 1990 in Barcelona, where Gibson said "Autodesk is not the street."
Why it matters
There is no direct product, policy, funding, or infrastructure change for Malaysian builders here. The narrow practical takeaway is about naming: Autodesk's attempt to register "cyberspace" and the ensuing lawyer-letter/rumor cycle show that trademark risk can attach even to broad cultural terms, so check registrations before spending on a product or community brand built on one.
Discussion angle
Where is the line between protecting a product name and trying to own a community term, and how would a small Malaysian team check trademark risk before naming a product or community?