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Python Trademark Filer Ignorant of Python?
WebMink writes "Is it possible that the CEO of the company that's trying to file a trademark on 'Python' was unaware of Python's importance as a programming technology? That's what he claims — despite running a hosting company that's trying to break into cloud computing, where Python is used extensively. Still, he also regards the Python Software Foundation as a hostile American company and thinks that getting attention from half the world's geeks is a DDoS. From the article: '[The CEO, Tim Poultney,] confirmed that he'd not involved any technical staff in the decisions he'd made about the Python product brand, and told me he regretted that as it would probably have helped him understand the likely reaction to his trademark challenge. ... He said he now understood how offended the global developer community are and told me there was obviously only one outcome that was now possible.'"
nft
Resignation?
As a young wannabe programmer, I feel that this company has to be pretty clueless to be in the computing business and not know about one of the most popular programming languages today. The fact that it uses the largely meaningless and sensationalistic "cloud computing" buzzword also harms its credibility.
reconverting his company to something not computers related ?
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
The article seems to end on a cliffhanger. What outcome is the article writer referring to? There are many that spring to mind.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
This is a crystal clear example of CEO arrogance
If I was registering a new company, the last thing I would want to give my company or servers etc is a name that already pulls up millions of pages in a simple web search.
It just sounds like somebody was clueless and doesn't even know how people find services on the internet these days.
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
"Is it possible that the CEO of the company that's trying to file a trademark on 'Python' was unaware of Python's importance as a programming technology?" Really guys? Like you're the fucking center of the universe? 95% of the world has no fucking clue what python the programming language is, nevermind it's "importance"!
Suicide would be the only honorable thing to do at this point. By reptilian strangulation would be appropriate.
[The CEO, Tim Poultney,] confirmed that he'd not involved any technical staff in the decisions he'd made about the Python product brand
Seriously? I know a lot of CEOs have more branding experience than many developers but making single-minded decisions about your company's future, with no input from those who are likely to be affected most by those decisions, does not sound like the thinking of a leader.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Anyone preparing to start a new company and name it "Perl" ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Also, remembering a strange controversy around the definition of 'is'...
CEO, Tim Poultney: All right, we'll call it a draw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
My $0.02 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asp_(reptile) What could possibly go wrong?
And the attempted hijacking of theos.com (Theo de Raadt's website) by 'Theos Software'.....maker of the uber-popular Corona OS?
Willfulness is a term of art in law that one may wish to avoid having applied to ones actions.
If only someone would make a ruby python hybrid, name it RUpy and instead of a ruby gem for the logo we could sport one of green rupies from The Legend of Zelda.
An attorney is ignorant. No news here. Move along.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
and instead should be legally and scientifically classified as some sort of vermin.
The Python compiler is the native code compiler used in (likely) the most popular Common Lisp implementation on the planet, SBCL. It was originally part of CMUCL, which SBCL initially forked from, and predated "that other scripting language".
It's not that hard to coexist with conflicting names, if you're not an idiot. Obviously, that's not the case with this CEO, and Tim Poultney's name will be linked to this asinine attempt at overreach for the foreseeable future.
A company this braindead clueless about the computing world and programming is exactly who i want managing my cloud services!
What could go wrong with having such completely inept people in charge of my data resources!
Tim poultney shouldn't be allowed to touch any company even related to computers after this... it's far too stupid a mistake.
Folly is the cloak of knavery
If a person who runs a hosting company is not even familiar with a major programming language that is widely used for web development, his credibility is seriously questionable. It is the equivalent of a car dealership whose owner has never heard of Ferrari.
Palm trees and 8
"Is it possible that the CEO of the company that's trying to file a trademark on 'Python' was unaware of Python's importance as a programming technology?"
Welcome back from the cryostasis. It is my duty to inform you, that you ware unfortunate enough to be woken up in the age of capitalism, where money dictates EVERYTHING, without exceptions. You don't need to know anything about anything, unless that knowledge brings revenue. Have fun and try not to starve to death as the next stage in the evolution of human civilisation is quite a long way off...
PS. Captcha = "control"...
a clueless prick who runs a web hosting company?
In all seriousness, this guy knows exactly what he's doing. He's trying to trademark "python" so other hosting companies can't advertise support for python. I hate the hosting business, I've been trying to get out of it for 10 years.
Why didn't the Python foundation just trademark first? Whats clearly happening is that the foundation is crying home to mommy because they waited on getting the trademark, well to bad, you lost deal with it.
We do want him off the internet and it is a DDoS.
What a piece of...
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Python-the-language was never registered as a mark in Europe. If the guy backs off, Python geeks out to consider themselves lucky. Be a change from considering themselves exempt from the house rules.
I don't suppose the hate mail and venomous phone calls he got from idiots helped either. Class act, that.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Comment same as title?
Law Suite.
The A-hOle will come out water guns blazing and claim his is THE VICTUM of a World Wide CONSPIRACY.
In addition to the patent claim he will further claim damages both physical and psychological and emotional from the World Wide CONSPIRACY.
His claim will be in the magnitude of 300 Billion Dollars, exchange trade on the Euro valuations, Brussels, by the minute.
Me thinks of his efforts ... er ... well .... no.
XD
Poke the snake and get bitten.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
...SCO?
Am I the only one who read that as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Pawlenty the first time?
So what's the company website so we can all visit it? What, it is already down?
I'd say the fact that he thinks Python-the-language is something American is proof that he's pretty much completely unaware of it. Unless Holland was annexed by the US recently, while I wasn't looking, I think it's Dutch. :)
Comment same as title?
Yes, of course.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Slashdot should create a poll for a new company name. If they don't have enought brains to use a search engine they need all the help we can give them.
To keep the snake motif I would suggest the following:
DumbAsp
RattlerBrains
Mambasement
Adder-all
Krait and Barefaced
good thing he didn't try to trademark brainf**k - those guys don't mess around they go straight to the syntaxical point
I don't know about the whole of Europe, but at least in the UK, registering a trademark is just a process to help you prove you own it, by having it there as proof. You still own a trademark by establishing a brand, even if you don't register it.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
What about clueless Merkins? Not enough knives?
Really, there is no trademark in the UK/Europe on Python.
Why the hell should he give a shit about whether there's a US company got one IN THE USA??? And why should him NOT giving a flying fuck about a company not in the UK and NOT having the Python trademark where he wanted to trademark it mean that everyone wants him to kill himself?
Where, for example, were all the "Tim Cook should kill himself!" "laughs" when Apple didn't know that there was already a trademark for iPhone in Brazil?
"Basically, though, the fact that python-the-language has been using that name for decades in the EU should make it untrademarkable by anyone else"
Or Apple untrademarkable?
Or Office untrademarkable?
Or Mac untrademarkable?
And why would "at least for anything related to computer software" apply? This is about computers. Now, yes, they need software else they're an expensive doorstop, but the company is about server, not software.
Is the difference that it's not a US CEO? Or is the difference that it's Python, registered in the USA?
The story about not knowing about Python was actually fairly believable because it correlates well with the kinds of actions the company has taken and the other things the CEO said. So now it remains, how is it that his technical staff couldn't tell him the problem?
I mean, someone had to be told to actually put something at the domain. Someone had to make up the graphics. Someone had to publish the graphics on the site. I'm certain that some people in his staff were groaning and clutching their heads over what kind of problems this would cause them. How is it that none of them could come to him and tell him what the problem was?
I can only conclude that he makes it impossible for his staff to question his decisions. CEOs like that are awful to work under.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
Packet loss from hungry eagles is unacceptable for long links. Screech owls perform notably better due to their symbiotic relationship with blind snakes, but the screech owl's low carrying capacity and nocturnal habit make them unsuitable for general purpose avian carriers, and severely restrict their application in general.
who can't be bothered to exchange words with the army of technical people he has under his employ because he thinks his momo friends in armani suits know better.
a good leader always consults with the frontline troops
sadly the business world is full of these people.
reminds me of the ceo we had who had to rebrand our 'beta' process because of all the 'negative connotations' that were associated the word 'beta', so we spun up a whole business flow with made up terminology and tech support had to spent an extra 10 minutes with every customer answering the invariable 'so why aren't you just calling it a beta since that's what it is' question ever single one of them asked, which in turn made us look like idiots who were completely out of touch with industry standard terms
Trademarks, patents, etc are only a right to sue. If you don't protect your 'mark' then someone will always try to steal it eventually.
Now if we could get AT&T or IBM or Apple or M$oft to believe it is in their best interest to not let this happen, then these folks will go away (at least that is my educated guess).
Screech owls often eat the blind snakes, though, resulting in high packet loss.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Clearly, this page on Wikipedia coming on top of Google will have to rewritten.