To answer your question regarding patenting, patents pertain to structures and methods for the manipulation of structures. Patents do not pertain to names/terms. Therefore, any term by definition cannot be patented. Trademark law might protect the term, but in the absence of more facts, I don't know about this particular term set. After re-reading the post, the post also does not violate trademark law. It is settled law that the use of a trademark for comparison to another product does not violate trademark protection. Additionally, copyright doesn't apply for reasons I won't go into. The poster hasn't violated any IP laws pertaining to his original post.