To paraphrase William Shakespere: People who steal a good name steal treasure.

Which is why the Augusta National Golf Club warned merchants in a series of advertisements to avoid using their trademarks as it protects its name and the name of the Masters Tournament from imitators.

The club has several trademarks but has had few cases of infringement that weren't resolved informally.

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary lists 34 definitions for the word master, plus others for terms that include the word. It describes classical painters, young boys and slave owners.

Ironically, one definition of master is an original that copies are made from, as in a recording master. The Augusta phone book lists nearly 50 people and businesses with Masters in their names, many which seem to play on the fame of the annual golf tournament.

Since 1946, federal trademark laws have permitted the control of so-called intellectual property or intangible assets. The law isn't to prevent consumers from being confused between genuine and bogus merchandise as much as it is to prevent the reputation of the trademark from being diluted through general use, he said.

``You think about the big guys against the small guys, but the big guys have the rights,'' said Atlanta trademark attorney Jason Bernstein said. ``Since those marks are fairly old and fairly strong, they are trying to protect everything under the sun.''

Trademark holders like Augusta National, Walt Disney and the International Olympic Committee have invested money and time making their names valuable, and according to Mr. Bernstein, they should be able to control those names. On the other hand, he said the developers of nylon, Dempsey Dumpsters and escalators didn't discourage competitors from using the names of their products and learned in court cases that they had lost control of the names.

T-Bonz chain of steakhouses recently changed the spelling of its name by replacing the ``es'' ending with a ``z'' in order to create a name that could be trademarked, according to co-owner Bo Handy. Former partners and other companies operate unrelated restaurants with the old spelling, he said.

``We are trying to differentiate ourselves from others,'' he said. But he admitted some hesitation to make even minor changes in the name.

``We are big on karma. If you change your signs, people will think you sold your business,'' he said.

Federal and state laws give trademark owners the right to control who uses protected words and symbols as well as how they use them so the trademarks don't become so common that they are not directly associated with the license holder. Coined words like TBonz, Exxon or Kodak are easier to protect than a common descriptive word like ``masters'' and the city's name.

``They have a problem with their particular mark because masters is a pretty descriptive word,'' said Lawrenceville trademark lawyer Jim Hinkle.

For example, a person who's surname is Masters could be stopped from advertising another golf shop with his name in it. But he could probably get away with opening a dry cleaners by the same name, Mr. Bernstein said.

``While you have the right to your own name, I couldn't go out and open a restaurant called McDonald's if my name were Jason McDonald because someone got there first,'' Mr. Bernstein said.

``A dry cleaners is not really going to hurt Augusta National. They make a business decision not to go after someone unless its in a golf context,'' Mr. Hinkle said.

Neither can the club claim control of the names Augusta, Georgia or maps with their outline. They can claim logos that include the city, state, or outline of the country with certain golf symbols, according to Mr. Hinkle.

In other words, each of the elements of a trademark, such as individual words or symbols in common usage, may not be controllable. When those elements are combined to convey a certain message, then they can cross the line into infringement.

``If you were selling doorknobs with Augusta Masters on them, they could probably stop you,'' Mr. Bernstein said.