This occured to me while listening to an International Star Registry radio spot

In these ads, it is stated that the new name of a previously only
numerically designated star will be kept in copyrighted book form in the
U.S. Patent Office. Hmmm. . .perhaps one day some lucky geologist will
chance upon a stone (hidden deep within a Middle Eastern cave) that reveals
which ancient nomad(s) owned the copyright for "Gienah Ghurab," "Yed
Posterior," "Nodus Secundus," and "Tejat Posterior."

In the mean time, it is a pretty safe bet that the "life plus 75(?) years"
clause on copyrights has expired on these names so feel free to throw them
around here and there and everywhere with crediting their source. ;o)



--
Martin
"Photographs From the Universe of Amateur Astronomy"
http://home.earthlink.net/~martinhowell