William Gibson and cyberspace trademarking
The gist
Autodesk applied to trademark "cyberspace" in 1989, and author William Gibson had lawyers object.
The episode is remembered through a prank rumor that Gibson trademarked a person's name.
How it unfolded
- 1982Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome".
- 1984His debut novel Neuromancer popularized cyberspace as a shared digital environment that could be entered and navigated.
- 1989Autodesk applied to register "cyberspace" as a trademark as its VR work moved toward becoming a product; Gibson had his lawyers send Autodesk a letter, which Gullichsen recalls was ignored.