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1 in 9 Companies Sign Linux Trademark Letter

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wonder-where-this-will-go dept.

An anonymous reader writes "More than 10 percent of the 90-odd organisations which received a letter asking them to relinquish any legal claim to the 'Linux' name have agreed to do so. Jeremy Malcolm, the lawyer who's leading the charge on behalf of Linux Mark Institute, described the response and favorable, saying: "Not all of the recipients were using Linux as part of their business of product/service names. He added that one of the purposes of sending the letter out in the first place was to discern which organisations might use the name for commercial gain."

10 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. We need a new license plate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Anybody remember the UNIX license plate?

  2. Free as in ... by Lellor · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Free to use it, but only if Linus Torvalds approves. I know I'll be moderated down for this, but it needs to be said.

    Is it just me, or is FreeBSD is starting to look pretty good right now from an ideological point of view? Pulling out lawyers is an awfully Microsoft-ish/SCO-ish thing to do.

    --
    Liberal Ontarians and French Quebecers are draining Western Canada's wealth. Stop them now! Support Western separatism.
    1. Re:Free as in ... by rob.wolfe · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What the heck are you smoking? How do you get from the effort that is required by statute and common law to defend a trademark to "will the LMI be extracting vast tribute from Linux vendors, and blackmailing them a-la Microsoft?"

      What is really scary to me is that there is this kneejerk reaction that if an organization does anything at all to protect "intellectual property" -- a horrid term but one that I think actually does apply to trademarks because someone else using your trademarks can lessen the value of them -- it is some slippery slope from there to fiendish machinations and demands for royalties.

      Call me a pollyanna but I refuse to believe that everyone in the world is inherently evil

  3. In defense of Linus. by Karma_fucker_sucker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The way I understand Trademarks, Copyrights, and other intellectual property (IANAL), you have to defend the marks - even if you have to fight every little battle. Otherwise, if Linus allowed someone to market "Linux Condoms" without challenging the name, he, in effect, gives permission. After that, fighting the use of that name becomes more difficult. You wouldn't want to see SCO change there name to "Linux SCO" or even to "Supreme Corp Of Linux" (SCOL). I know of some very ethical people who have the best intentions who will fight for their trademarks (An example)- you have to protect yourself because no one else will!

    --
    Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
  4. Strange thing to do by DrMowinckel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    quote:
    "Not all of the recipients were using Linux as part of their business of product/service names," he said, adding that one of the purposes of sending the letter out in the first place was to discern which organisations might use the name for commercial gain.

    I am all for protecting the Linux trademark, and I (think I) understand the reasons behind it. However, I feel that LMI should really be sure that the when they send out threatening letters, the recipients ARE using Linux as part of their business/product name. Their strategy seems like harassment.

    --
    In soviet Russia, Raymond loves Everybody, including, but not limited to, YOU!
    1. Re:Strange thing to do by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why do people always assume letters from lawyers must be threatening? Can't they ever be just informative messages and polite inquires?

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
  5. Forecast by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When Microsoft buys the name "Linux" from Linus (or his heirs), they're going to regret this.

  6. Re:I think it was more than iritation... by milktoastman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Bad example, maybe. Sting should deal with the fact that his stage name is generic. Maybe Robert Redford should sue him?

  7. I still think it's already too late. by RiffRafff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Hand me a Kleenex."

    "Please Xerox this for me."

    Two examples of how trademarks have made it into common speech. "Linux" made it even faster, since it has been an all-encompassing term for a collection of software for years. "Linux" is only the kernel; a small fraction of the software that comes on distributions that include the name "Linux:" Red Hat Linux, Debian Linux, Suse Linux, Mandrake (Mandriva) Linux, Damn Small Linux, etc. The majority of the software on these distros is true "third-party" software, and the next largest category is the GNU "glue" that holds it all together. The kernel is way down the line, here.

    Torvalds is likely to do for "GNU/Linux" what Stallman never could: get people to start calling the OS after something other than just the kernel.

    After all, how should we divide up credit among developers of all this software? People balked at calling it "GNU/Linux," but at this rate, GNU sounds a hell of a lot better than GNU/Linux/Apache/GIMP/OSS/KDE/Gnome/Enlightenment/ Xmms/Mozilla/Audacity/X11/ARTS/CUPS/Java/Mplayer/W INE/MySQL/Perl/Python.

    Be careful, Linus...be careful what you wish for.

    --
    "I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
  8. payback? by literate · · Score: 3, Interesting

    we use debian linux from Progeny in our FileEngine. we paid the LMI for our use of "linux" in one of our service marks: "Driven by Linux - Non-Stop File Power"

    why not? i'd pay samba too for the use of their trademark. they provide the foundation of our systems. i don't mind paying...shouldn't they both reap some benefits for their contributions to our success?