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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."

7 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. "Butthead Astronomer" by putko · · Score: 5, Funny

    When Apple called a project "Sagan", the astronomer got irritated, and told them to cease and desist.

    Then they changed it to "Butthead Astronomer": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

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    1. Re:"Butthead Astronomer" by Woogiemonger · · Score: 4, Informative

      When Apple called a project "Sagan", the astronomer got irritated, and told them to cease and desist. Then they changed it to "Butthead Astronomer": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

      This is pretty funny. What you guys might've missed in the Wikipedia article is that Sagan actually sued to have the project's name changed, and lost. Apple changed it to Butthead Astronomer anyway, which prompted Sagan to sue again, for libel. He lost again, but Apple changed the project name one more time, to "LAW", which stood for "Lawyers Are Wimps". :)

      If every lawsuit was this amusing, perhaps the legal world wouldn't be so sickening.

  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.

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    1. Re:Free as in ... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Informative
      Is it just me, or is FreeBSD is starting to look pretty good right now from an ideological point of view?

      AFAIK you can't just go out and call your product FreeBSD coffee, or whatever. The FreeBSD foundation owns the trademark.

      I know for a fact that the NetBSD foundation has been clamping down on people using the NetBSD name in their products without authorisation.

      I don't see how Linus's actions are any different from this.

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  3. 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!
  4. Trademark == reputation by G4from128k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suspect that some of this is about reputation. If Linux is to become a widely-used, trusted OS, then it needs trustworthy businesses to provide trustworthy services. The first step is to control the name "Linux" so that only those companies that adhere to certain standards, codes of conduct, etc. can be allowed to use the marque. Linus can't control the codebase, but he can control the name.

    I'm not saying that the Linux Mark Institute is doing this, but it is what they should do as part of the Linux maturation process.

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    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  5. Other way around? by Mr_Silver · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

    Personally, I think the bigger news is that just under 90% of the 90-odd organisations that received a letter have not responded to requests to relinquish any legal claim to the 'Linux' name.

    In other words, 80 of those companies may attempt to assert a legal claim to the 'Linux' name now or in the future. This is a hell of a bigger volume (and worry) than the 10 that said they wouldn't.

    Finally, if not all of them were using the 'Linux' name in their business/product/service name - what exactly was the point in sending them this letter? So they could ignore it?

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