Martin Schwimmer, a tradmark lawyer, has ignited a controversy over “commercial” aggregation services (here and here).

It poses an interesting argument. The gut-reaction instinct is to marginalize his comments as fringe element of the blogosphere. But Russell Beattie’s comments point out that line between public and private, personal and commercial use become extremely blurred in a new medium.

Perhaps what Martin Schwimmer should do is leap from the Trademark bubble and help DEFINE how a service such as Bloglines can use his content in a way that he agrees with. The law profession is far to reactive and non-solution oriented.

Don’t quote old broken rules; be a leader and make new, effective ones. Leadership comes from bold new initiatives and the willingness to see what is, and make what should and can be.

I issue a challenge to Martin Schwimmer: lead, don’t follow.

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