Do libraries pay to use the Dewey Decimal System? Does anyone else pay to
use the numbering system, and to whom do they send the check? Would not a
deviation from the original Dewey configuration, no longer be the Dewey system?
*********************************************
At 05:24 PM 9/23/03, you wrote:
>Actually sounds like a fun place to stay.
>Jed
>
>
>Library catalog system owner sues book-based New York hotel
>September 20, 2003, 9:29 PM EDT
>
>DUBLIN, Ohio -- A global computer library service is seeking one heck of a
>fine against a New York City luxury hotel.
>
>The Library Hotel, overlooking the New York Public Library, opened in August
>2000 as an homage to the Dewey Decimal system of classifying books by topic.
>
>Each floor is dedicated to one of 10 Dewey categories. The 60 rooms are
>named for specific topics, such as room 700.003 for performing arts, with
>appropriate books inside.
>
>Trouble is, the classification system isn't in the public domain.
>
>Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit organization based in this
>Columbus suburb, acquired the rights to Dewey Decimal in 1988 when it bought
>Forest Press.
>
>The system is continually updated, with numbers assigned to more than
>100,000 new works each year as soon as they are cataloged by the Library of
>Congress, according to the OCLC website.
>
>Now the library group is suing the Library Hotel, accusing it of trademark
>infringement.
>
>The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Wednesday seeks
>triple the hotel's profits since its opening or triple the organization's
>damages, whichever is greater, from hotel owner Henry Kallan.
>
>"I would term it straight-out trademark infringement," said Joseph R.
>Dreitler, a trademark lawyer with the Columbus office of Jones Day, which
>represents the Online center.
>
>"A person who came to their Web site and looked at the way (the hotel) is
>promoted and marketed would think they were passing themselves off as
>connected with the owner of the Dewey Decimal Classification system."
>
>Melvil Dewey created the most widely used library classification system in
>1873. Each of 10 main categories, such as social sciences, mathematics or
>the arts, has thousands of subcategories, designated by decimal points.
>
>The center charges libraries at least $500 a year for its use.
>
>The center also provides computerized services such as cataloging materials,
>locating reference books and arranging interlibrary loans to more than
>45,000 libraries in 84 countries.
>
>Similar unauthorized uses of the Dewey system mostly have resulted in
>out-of-court settlements, Dreitler said.
>
>The lawsuit said the center sent three letters to Kallan from October 2000
>to October 2002, asking for acknowledgment of Online's ownership of the
>Dewey trademarks, but the hotel owner didn't respond.
>
>Hotel general manager Craig Spitzer and OCLC spokeswoman Wendy McGinnis did
>not return phone messages Saturday requesting comment on the lawsuit.
>
>Dreitler said the center is willing to settle with the hotel's owners.
>
>"At a minimum, if they want to continue to use it, there certainly has to be
>some sort of a license to the Library Hotel," he said. "We're not interested
>in putting the hotel out of business."
>
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