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Randle M. Biddle
Owner
Windship Studios
Buford, Ga.

Term Limits: Lame Idea

After reading Adam Hanft's column about putting term limits on managers ["Reshuffling Your Cabinet," February], two words came to mind: lame duck. Presidential appointees have incentive to leave on a high note. They can go on to receive lucrative speaking engagements, big-time jobs in the private sector, and favorable mentions in the history books. But instituting four-year terms for CEOs or any member of management is ridiculous. In the last few months of the term, those managers would be working just as hard as a last-place sports team does in the week before the playoffs.

Nancy L. Suchoff
Owner
Suchoff Marketing Communications
Boca Raton, Fla.

Marking Your Territory

I'm guessing whoever answered the question about trademarking a slogan [Ask Inc., February] hadn't read Inc.'s December feature on consulting your lawyer. While filing for a trademark on a slogan is less risky than filing one on a single word, it's not something I'd recommend doing without a lawyer's help.

Since trademark rights are based on first use in commerce, not first registration, it's important to perform a thorough trademark search. Inc.'s advice of relying only on an Internet search would miss phone books, newspapers, and state trade name registrations -- any of which might contain prior uses of the trademark in the same industry. If you take that route, businesses with superior rights could appear to oppose the mark during or after registration.

The article also says that trademarks "generally take three months to process." Due to massive overload at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, this is not correct. If you file online, it often takes up to six months for a response of any kind. In the end, the entire process can take one to three years.

Judith Silver, Esq.
CEO
Coollawyer.com
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Supporting Our Troops?

What Magnet America has accomplished in such a short period of time is fascinating [Case Study, February]. But I saw no mention of charitable distribution of the company's earnings to aid families of fallen soldiers or wounded service members. Surely there is room to repay something to those who drive your demand.

Richard Y. Bianco
Operations manager
La Galerie
Clinton, N.Y.

Those little yellow ribbons are one of my pet peeves. They are generally attached to gas-guzzling SUVs. Now there's a statement: I support the troops so I can drive my big SUV and get 13 miles per gallon.

Barbara Brennan
Partner
Prelude Computer Solutions
Morristown, N.J.

Editor's note: A Magnet America spokesman says that although the company does not donate a set percentage of proceeds from the sale of yellow ribbons, it gave $42,000 to a nonprofit that helps troops in Iraq make video calls to loved ones. The company also has donated more than 10,000 magnets to charity fundraisers.

The Cost of Incubation

The application process at business incubation programs is indeed rigorous ["Percolating Profits," February]. Membership, however, is not generally free. Many "virtual clients" pay a monthly fee for a basic set of services such as a certain number of hours of business counseling per month, admission to networking functions, and access to a conference room. Then they can elect to add on additional services, such as assistance with a marketing plan. Also, most incubator clients, virtual or not, do not become members for life. Whether their businesses are located inside the incubator or off-site, the goal is to help them learn to function independently as quickly as possible. Usually a client will require intensive services for six months to three or four years. After graduating from the program, the client may call on the incubator from time to time for assistance with critical projects or decisions.

Meredith Erlewine
Director of publications
National Business Incubation Association
Athens, Ohio

Capitalism in Outer Space

Burt Rutan should be proud of how his team has put pressure on government space agencies to use low-cost commercial space-transport services instead of the traditional state-built mammoths ["Entrepreneur of the Year," January]. Governments spend billions to send people into space, but competition and free enterprise are essential for any industry to thrive. If space travel is to ever reach a level at which it can be called an industry, private participation has to be encouraged.

Abhishek Sandhir
Student
Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management
Pune, India

In David Freedman's profile of Burt Rutan, he stated that Rutan's company has never had a fatal crash. That is true, but it's not the case that no one has ever died in one of Rutan's prototypes. Rick Brickert, who was not a company pilot, died in Rutan's model 158 Pond Racer in 1993.

Roger Mann
Owner
RagWing Aircraft Designs
Belton, S.C.

Corrections

The name of Transcon Trading was misspelled in January's "Happy Birthday, WTO?" On page 26 of that same issue, it should have read that the sale of hemp foods is now legal for the second time in the U.S. It was lawful before 1937.

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