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Who Owns The Linux Trademark?
An anonymous reader writes "In an addendum to the recent noises by Microsoft about Linux, InformationWeek blogger Alexander Wolfe has turned up an interesting list of who owns U.S. trademarks on the word "Linux." Yes, Linus Torvalds does indeed have the trademark as far as software is concerned. But Swiss company Rosch owns "Linux" for use with laundry detergents. Interestingly, both Pogo Linux and United Linux have abandoned their trademarks (Wolfe speculates that's because of Linus's lawyers). But Finite State Machines of New Mexico owns RTLinux and Linux Networx Inc. owns "Linux Supercomputing." You can also read the full list of all 204 Linux trademarks"
Much like the ideas behind F/Oss.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
MUHAHAHAHAHA
... who will own Linux in the future:
1) Bill Gates and/or Microsoft
2) Steve Jobs and/or Apple
3) Rupert Murdock and/or MySpace
4) SCO (via litigation from Linus, Gates, Jobs or Murdock)
5) IBM (via litigation from SCO or cash from Linus)
6) Cowboy Neal (via high bid on eBay)
Does it really matter? This seems to be more of a discussion on trademarks rather than copyright/ownership issues. This is about the name "Linux", rather than what Linux actually IS. Even if the Linux trademark WAS what Microsoft was having disputes with (which it's not), it'd just be a "rose by any other name" scenario. Kinda like the way Gaim just changed its name to Pidgin. It's still Gaim, and it doesnt seem to me that people have had much trouble accepting the name change.
Im not saying this is completely uninteresting. But I think it's a little strong to tie it to the "noise by Microsoft about Linux".
"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose"
OTOH, given that death is a heartbeat away, perhaps the materialism was overrated.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Not sure who owns the logo, but if I was a penguin and that was my portrait, I'd be fucking PISSED.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
This was all sorted out in, what was it, 1996? This is only news if, like the author, you're surprised to learn that trademarks and patents are different things.
Since it is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government.
In the late 1970's Microsoft licensed UNIX source code from AT&T which at the time was not licensing the name UNIX. Therefore Microsoft created the name Xenix. Microsoft did not sell Xenix to end-users but instead licensed the software to software OEMs such as Intel, Tandy, Altos and SCO who then provided a finished version of their own Xenix to the end-users or other customers. SCO introduced its first version of Xenix named SCO Xenix System V for the Intel 8086 and 8088 in 1983. Today SCO Xenix is one of the more commonly used and found versions of Xenix.
Linux was based on Minix. A UnixLite OS designed to run on PCs. However, it was really only a teaching tool. Andrew Tanenbaum repeatedly refused to add the new (legitimate) features the users and even developers asked for. Linus Torvalds set out simply to add functionality to his own version of Minix (the copyright allows use to do so for your own personal use, but you cannot sell or distibute it).
Over time, in adding functionality to Minix, Linus Torvalds found that he had created an entirely new kernel. I was very similar to Minix but used none of the Minix source code. Torvalds had originally called it freax, for "`free' + `freak' + the obligatory `-x'. The operator of the FTP server where Linus' new kernel made its debut didn't like the name and simply called it Linux (Linus + Unix). People seemed to like the name so it stuck.
... i thot we all knew that
This is my sig. There are thousands more, but this one is mine.
Linux, it runs your computer AND whitens your teeth.
It's pretty common knowledge that a trademark is only valid within an industry.
Imagine that, an AC who lacks common knowledge, or who pretends to in order to troll, you troll.
Hm, I think WIRED has done an article like this, and c|net, and I'm pretty sure Slashdot has gone through all this again. Makes me feel so old to re-live all these formula "knews" articles again and again.
[
There are many. many more -- this is only a list of Linux-based trademarks in the United States.
For instance, this list is the one for Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
I better make my move and trademark Linus before that stupid Charlie Brown character makes a power move...
Infiltrated dot Net
OTOH, MS's defence might be that they *are* involved in the enema industry, since the public has been taking it up the ass from them for years...
No Bill Gates (TM) douche for similar reasons.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Well, I have seen ads for stockings with MicroSoft fibers...
Ignore this signature. By order.
A trademark isn't exclusive right to use a word (or symbol, or other "mark") in every context to represent just anything. Trademarks are justified only by their purpose: to identify a distinct product or service to people in its market. The entire test of a trademark's validity is whether it creates or resolves confusion in the market.
If someone (reasonable) sees a mark, do they think it represents the thing offered in trade, or do they think it represents a competitor?
Trademark law requires that mark registrants "vigorously defend from dilution" their mark: actively find others offering under their registered mark competing products, then instruct the competitor to stop using the mark fraudulently or without authorization. If the mark registrant doesn't "vigorously defend" their mark, the market can become confused, diluting the exclusive meaning of the mark, and the registrant can lose their registration, making it available to the competitor (who's then got the same responsibility, if they reregister it themself).
Reasonable people are expected to distinguish between a computer OS and a soap. The Trademark Office registers marks in specific industries (with a fee for each industry in which it's registered). But courts sometimes have difficult questions in defining distinctions, especially in new industries like software.
Trademark is probably the most reasonable "intellectual property" law in the US. Because it's defined in service of the consumer, to ensure the clear flow of info between the mark holder and the consumer.
--
make install -not war
Obligatory...
. jpg
http://folk.uio.no/hpv/linuxtoons/linux-detergent
And yes, it is a real photo!
I'll probably be modded down for this...
Bill Gates has been cleaning vaginas for years? You didn't need to put that image in my head. :(
One should wonder who own these two trademarks.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
The same name can be trademarked by multiple companies as long as they don't have the same type of business.
Exmaple of similar trademarked companys:
Apple Records (the ones the Beatles owned)
Apple Computers (the one that Jobs owns)
Apple Vacations
Remember there was a big legal stink between Apple Records and Apple Computers when the former released a sound card in their computer. Apple Records said that meant they were getting into the music business and then latter with iTunes.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
All we need now is the bad 70's hair...
Best Slashdot Co
Not really. Ownership in F/OSS is a diffuse thing, you can 'own' a chunk of software - but you don't really have any legal rights over that software. You give them up under whichever F/OSS licence you use. When you 'own' a trademark, you retain your legal rights, you can direct how the trademark is used, and you can prevent others from using it.
You mean I could be washing my clothes with Linux too?
Why on earth the list of the Linux trademarks is made by graphics and not in plain text?
Maybe the plain text list is copyrighted! Which leads to another kinf of legal issues.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Remember the difference between Apple Music (Beatles) and Apple Computers? Although that has been litigated, there are have been domains limits for multiple name holders.
Whoever owns all them pengins, please contact me.
Bill Sparks, Chief of R&D
Purina Dog Food Company
St. Louis, Missouri 63164
That common knowledge is not correct. In the US, you perfect your rights to a trademark. In Europe and Asia, AFAIK, you have to establish the actual right(s) sought.
a copy of Knoppix.
Does this constitute trademark infringement by Rosche against Linus Torvalds?
It certainly could lead to confusion.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Minix was not based on Xenix, at all. Linux was only superficially based on Minix. So how do you conclude that Linux is based on Xenix?
#include ".signature"
In the United States, there's something called the Trademark Anti-dilution Act, which is sort of a winner-take-all rule for trademarks. It says that if you have a "famous" mark, you can shut down competing users regardles of whether or not they are in the same field. So it's not always true that a trademark is only valid within an industry.
The anti-dilution act is evil and should be repealed in its entirety, but that ain't gonna happen. It has been watered down somewhat by the courts.
...Linux copyrights you!
Please mod this insensitive clod down.
Only one decade old? It looks a lot older. He's had a good run, but it's time we updated it? Does everyone agree?
Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. -Brian Kernigan
Yup, that is totally correct. The word "trademark" is used because it applys to a given "Trade" IE computers or music. There is also something called a well-known trademark for some of the leading brands in the world, so you can't start a car dealership called Coca-cola motors.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
besides, isn't this almost like trying to trick the open source community into saying that there are some things about an open source product that can't be modified freely?
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
up yours, dumbass.
so much for your common knowledge. imagine that, a dumb ass who lacks any real legal knowledge. that's why fucktards like you need to put a "ianal" in your posts.
http://www.linuxgoldcorp.com/Linux Gold
Linux in the form of a laundry detergent?
This is great news! It should be included in HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux. Linux usage will soar at last! Now we need a Linux beer to cover the male non-geek audience and world domination will be assured!
Yes, it does matters, indeed. There is no such thing as a "prior art" in trademarks.
- The first to file a trademark is the first to own, no matter if the name has been around for centuries (like the term "Windows" which was used since the original Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart demo to designate an application visual space in a graphical multi-task environment).
- Also, the trademark owner has the obligation to sue ("to enforce it's trademark") otherwise he can loose the trademark and the word may get genericised (Google fighting actively against the "verbing" of it's name to designated the act of searching on the web).
- The only limitation is that a trademark name cannot use some generic name in it's field (You can trademark "Google", because in english similarly sounding "pair of goggles" is an optical device that has nothing to do with online search engines also the similarly sounding "googol" is a mathematical concept. Google is unheard of when speaking of search engine) (As a counter example a "window" is part of a graphical interface. Thus Microsoft has patented combinations of it "Microsoft Windows", "Microsoft Windows Vista", etc... and have a set of painfully long "trademark guidelines" on their website)
- Also, a trademark infringement is considered only when there's an actual conflict between two names, where both could be used to designate similar objects. As said by other
Back to our case :
Yes it is important, because otherwise that means that, some idiotic troll company that has nothing better to do, like, say, SCO, could patent "SCO Linux" or "Linux" for their product and then sue the shit out of other distribution makers or OSS projects for "patent infringement" because the others "Linux" infringe on theirs, and all can be confused because all are in fact names of operating system distributions, and "Linux" isn't a generic term.
By securing "Linux", Linus has avoided such a stupid situation. The fact that other companies has similarly sounding names doesn't pose any problem, because there's no way one could mix "Linux as the OSS kernel and distribution bsed on it" with "Linux the swiss detergent" (although this has been a running joke in a campaign advertising for computing courses here in Switzerland...)
In fact such a situation HAS happened before, and one was featured very recently on
Initially the project started as a AOL client, and AOL simply forced them not to use their name in the project name. Thus the project choose GAIM for name, using the initialism for "AOL Internet Messaging" that AOL wasn't using at that time.
Later, AOL registered "AIM" as a trademark for their own product (which was possible because the usage of "GAIM" wasn't widespread enough... and of course wasn't registered in the first place), and ended up unleashing their lawyers on GAIM because both project had similarly sounding names and designate closely related products (both are clients for internet messaging services).
Thus the Pidgin new name.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Can I trademark Linux Adult Publishing?
Can I start a new political party, The Linux Party?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The registered mark RTLinux, and RTLinux Pro, RTCore, and LNET, are now owned by Wind River. a.
You must feel mighty powerful now after calling someone a dumbass and a fucktard over the internet, especially while safely behind the Anonymous Coward mask.
Congratulations big boy!
Manuals are your last resort only
Who owns Tux?
So I guess you're saying that the Linux mark was famous before the Linux kernel? On which and how many of these grounds? Also, note that:
So Linus Torvalds holding a valid Federal trademark on the word "Linux" in connection with his product bars an action seeking to declare him to be diluting the trademark of another through two avenues. I'm not certain, but it seems attacking the validity of his trademark directly or filing an action based on the anti-dilution federal statute are the only avenues left.
You're right, I Am Not A Lawyer. If _you_ are a lawyer, _you_ should realize that your argument holds about as much water as a plastic knife. You also should be responsible enough to sign your posts and to make your point without resorting to calling people "dumb ass" and "fucktard".
Also note that the "Linux" soap trademark (serial number 75735641, registration number 2410190, filed June 23, 1999, registered December 5, 2000) that is being claimed to be infringed upon by Linus Torvalds was both filed after and registered after the one for the operating system (serial number 74560867, registration number 1916230, filed August 15, 1994, registered September 5, 1995) in the U.S., and that you are referencing a U.S. statute.
No you don't.
A couple of years ago, I got a Linux box for my birthday. It's pretty crap, really. It doesn't wash especially clean, and your clothes come out smelling slightly weird.
Micro&Soft is only marginally better - I've used that too (yeah - same friend, same birthday).
I've now gone back to using things like Persil and Ariel, and am much happier with the result - cleaner clothes that actually do smell better.
But that's just the washing. I've been using the Linux OS since '93...
-- Steve
Sorry, that's what happens when you watch TV while typing on a forum that both has story about Microsoft's Patent claims, and Linus' Linux trademark securing.
Of course, I was wanting to speak about trademark (with the possibility it gives you to sue your predecessors).
Not about patents (at least there's the "Prior Art" close) nor copyrights (with its always diminishing "fair use" clause).
Thank you for pointing out my mistake.
My intention was to point out, had Linus not secured Linux trademark some suit-happy troll could sue them for trademark infringement, both attracting much noise around OSS and causing confusion of product identity (see the whole "Phoen... no FireBi... FireFo... fuck it ! FireSomething !" confusion and it was handled friendly. My non-Linux friends have some trouble following the GAIM/Pidgin change) and attracting general FUD over the whole story.
It's not a risk that could ruin the whole Linux adventure. But it is going to slow down both the development during the suit (in GAIM-eternal-beta style) and slow down adoption (because of confusion and the FUD).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
What is this, "women" you speak of?
If it can do laundry as well as run Linux, I'm interested! But only if I can download one for free.
Sincerely,
Longtime slashdot reader
http://www.roche.com/home.html
http://www.roche.ch/
http://www.roche.de/
They're the same people who manufacture Donald Rumsfeld's
"cure" for super-flu-ous people aka as "Tamiflu".
Dont let them register it
Now when it comes to 'Linux' using it in ways which the proponents of Linux do not like will most certainly 'advertise' your company but it will end up doing it in the most negative way possible, as you will get most vociferously attacked by the Linux end users and contributors (whether they be coders, distributors, free tech support or promotion).
Linus's trademark lawyers, if any exist have very little to do as a hordes of penguinistas descend upon the foolish company and peck them to death with anti-marketing.
Linus's trademark ownership simply provides a level of legal clarification in terms of the trademark issues of 'Linux' and avoids a whole lot of unnecessary aggravation in the community ;).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
That well-known trademark, is it decided in court? Or is it something you have to pay extra for? I mean, if "Linux Supercomputers" is a trademark, can I trademark "Windows Supercomputers"? (Ok, that's a funny name, but it's just an example).
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Who owns the Linux trademark?
You can also read the full list of all 204 Linux trademarks
At least 204 people and/or companies, I'd guess. That's what a trademark is - something registered with the gov't so everyone knows who owns it. The trademark registry includes full description of the mark and the scope of the services,products or markets where the trade mark is used. "Who owns" regarding trademarks is very much like "who owns" regarding motor vehicles. Just read the title to the property.
Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
I wonder if there are more companies in the English speaking world than there are words in the English language (as recognised at any instance measured by the likes of the OED).
And then escalate that to the number of products that there are.
Result I suspect (to both without the need to check) is a necessity to reuse words that might be part of an entities brand. You (in the UK) pretty much can't just register a regular word like Apple without additional elements that make it unique and capable of recognition as a brand.
Slightly different on something like a made up word such as Linux. Which makes me wonder if Linus has the copyright on it too?
Well, I think The Penguin owns it :)