More intellectual-property follies

From the December 14 Chronicle of Higher Ed:

The American Chemical Society has sued Google, the popular Internet search company, arguing that the new Google Scholar service violates a trademark the society holds for its search product, Scifinder Scholar.

In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on December 9, the society argues that it holds a "common law" trademark for the term "scholar," because people often refer to the Scifinder Scholar tool as simply "scholar." ...
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In other news, I hereby assert a trademark on the word "hill". I demand that cartographers everywhere immediately cease and desist from infringing on this "common-law trademark". A license to use my trademark may be available at very reasonable rates. Or not.