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Universities Dispute with Red Hat over 'Fedora'
Carl Lagoze points out that a pre-existing software project is already using the Fedora name, dating back to 1998. They're unhappy with Red Hat's claim to the name, and have objected.
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Meanwhile, Fedora Linux started in December 2002 as a collection of 3rd party RPMs
In case it gets slashdotted: mirror
A Trademark needs to be exact, It's a Fedora (Generic) and it's not red, and it's not pointing the right direction.
Just ask Rob about the IBM Logo, IBM said that since it wasn't the proper ratio it wasn't a valid Logo. In an old job we got to co-brand with IBM, and the dimensions were defined down to the width of the spaces and blue in the lettering.
This sig is the express property of someone.
Maybe you should re-read The Fedora(TM) Project's press release...
There is substantial evidence for prior use of the name Fedora(TM) by the Cornell and Virginia teams starting in 1998. This includes published papers, web sites, software releases, and public presentations.
FreeSpeech.org
From reading the university Fedora website, it appears that while work on the project itself was around since 1998, it wasn't actually released to the public under the Fedora name until May 2003.
Hmm, I think they are only saying that they released version 1.0 to the public in May 2003. To quote their website:
" There is substantial evidence for prior use of the name Fedora? by the Cornell and Virginia teams starting in 1998. This includes published papers, web sites, software releases, and public presentations."
That sounds to me that even before May 2003 they had software releases, a web site etc. using this name (just no 1.0 release).
I don't know much about the dispute but the use of trademarks on fedora.info's page is a tad bit on the excessive side. Being in advertising I have to use trademarks all the time, the general rule is you only apply it to the first instance. The exception being when it's used again in a headline, header or subhead.
You can trademark common english words if the product/service the trademark will be put on is not related to the meaning of the word.
I can trademark "Truck" for some software product but not for a vehicule.
Click here to view the status of Red Hat's Trademark filing.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
They may have just gone public, but their site says "The Cornell and Virginia teams have taken a number of steps to try to work with Red Hat regarding use of the name Fedora(TM). At this date, Red Hat has refused our request...." My guess is that they started waving their hands as soon as it became public knowledge, but as usual it took a while for everybody to hear about everybody else -- by which time it's a little late to get the toothpaste back into the tube.
-- We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of other people. La Rochefoucauld
Actually you can, if it's a made-up word. Now that Phillip-Morris is "Altria" or whatever, I can't go and start "Altria Lumber Concern" even though lumber isn't related to their cancer creation service.
But, since neither party made up the word "Fedora", you may have a point. However, the "field" is generally recognized to be rather broad, for example, "software". If some company decided to call its telephony software suite "Nero Burning ROM", Ahead could still stop them even though telephony and CD recording are ostensibly different fields.
All's true that is mistrusted
Redhat already owns the trademark on fedora
Really?
Its a trademark, not a registered trademark. RH don't own it per se, a trademark is just your assertion that you used it first. Its the legal equivalent of "bagsies".
-Baz
A search at the US patent and trademark office lists 4 registered trademarks with the word fedora in them.
. 73467748 Feb 28 1984 Fedora Cafe and Bar
. 78296509 Sept 5 2003 Red Hat
. 78268874 June 30 2003 cosmetics
. 78312293 Oct 10 2003 Chemical Data Software
The fedora.info site of the complaining fedora project is using a tm symbol next to thier name on the site, but they have not registered it with the US trademark office.
It is not exclusively trademarked for software by fedora.info.
This could be forgiven of a small independent group, but this group is a co sponsored project, part of Cornell University and University of Virginia both of which I am sure have strict policies about things like Trademark, copyright and patents. And both have the legal staff to handle it.
Sorry but they won't get any sympathy from me, and no support from the law.
Trademark is not like copyright law, you must register to get exclusive control for a product in a market.
The name of the (F)orgin (E)xchange (S)tudent on "That Secenties Show" is FES. Or rather, thats his nickname; his real name has never been disclosed.
That's probably why Cornell's Fedora Project uses a hat as a logo and why Redhat chose Fedora as a project name.
From the bottom of the (file manager) project's home page:
Gentoo the Linux distribution has nothing to do with gentoo the file manager, except the latter runs on the former. I actually used the name first of the two, way back in September 1998. I've been in touch with the Gentoo folks, and we're cool.
I've used Fedora on my home system and I thik it's pretty slick. It's definately a step up from RedHat 8 or 9. Did you read a review on slashddot to base your opinion? Try it for yourself, then decide. Doesn't Fedora allow you to roll out your own up2date repository, so as long as you can build your own RPMs and put them in there, you could have all your desktops update to the same software without having to rely on RedHat's very short product life cycle to keep support for your OS. Basically Fedora makes it more Your OS then RedHat ever did. This is especially attractive to the network admins who are running many linux desktops and want to roll out their own packages. I got to say that I love it.
Merely adding the ™ symbol after your name doesn't really say more than "I use this name, I call it mine, and I may be in the process of registering it." Unless you have substantial documentation to back it up (which the universities do claim to have), it isn't really legally binding until you register it with the government and that little ™ turns into a nice ®. However, registering a trademark is expensive, and usually takes a long time, so most people just stick with the ™ if they have enough documentation to support the claim.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers