Linux Trademark Protection In Australia

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 15, 2005 @12:49PM from the decease-and-resist dept.

robyannetta writes "Australian companies providing Linux products and services may soon have to pay up to $A5000 a year to licence the operating system name (warning: Registration Required), if the patents agency IP Australia grants a trademark application it is reviewing. About 90 companies with products, services or websites containing the word "Linux" recently received letters of demand from Perth lawyer Jeremy Malcolm. Acting for user group Linux Australia Inc, he asks recipients to sign statements saying their use of the word is subject to the group's licence agreement, which has fees of $A200 to $A5000 under a successful trademark application."

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Er, uh by Luigi30 · 2005-08-15 12:52 · Score: 5, Insightful

Isn't this the kind of thing Free Software was supposed to be against? Anyone can distribute their own flavor of Linux and call it Linux without being threatened by lawsuits over trademarks?

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Err, excuse me? by Famanoran · 2005-08-15 12:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

Doesn't Linus own the 'Linux' trademark already?