Marshall -

Not to take up a lot of bandwidth with this, but trademark
information (as opposed to legal advice) is pretty easy to come by,
esp. if you are interested in US registrations. Check out the US PTO
web site, esp. the faq:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmfaq.htm#Basic003

You can search existing trademarks, or even electronically file a
trademark registration. And best of all, you can do this from
Winnipeg. No US citizenship required. However, you would be advised
to seek advice from a competent US attorney familiar with current TM
law if you plan to do anything even remotely mission-critical in this
area.

--
Larry Innes
Student-at-law (Year 1)
University of Victoria