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Groupon Backs Down On Gnome
Rambo Tribble writes: Groupon has announced it will abandon the 'Gnome' name for their product, ending the recent naming controversy that had the open source community up in arms. They said, "After additional conversations with the open source community and the Gnome Foundation, we have decided to abandon our pending trademark applications for 'Gnome.' We will choose a new name for our product going forward." The GNOME Foundation has thanked everyone who helped.
My question... does this represent Gnu thinking on the part of Groupon?
My question... does this represent Gnu thinking on the part of Groupon?
Actually, it was a good win by GNOME. That they had the money to defend the trademark (and I think that Groupon understood that they would be successful) caused Groupon to back down. GNOME gets the win and the money goes to something useful instead of lawyers fees.
Who would want it anyway?
"ending the recent naming controversy that had the open source community up in arms"
It did?
The risk was not from the Gnome Foundation's lawyers, but from smartasses all around the Internet coming up with ways to get back at Groupon with names for preposterous services that don't quite infringe on Groupon's trademark.
I was going to point this out to the parent poster but you did it much more gracefully than I would have.
I'm also surprised that if Groupon is so into "open source" they wouldn't have noticed this before submitting the trademark application. Oh, that and the fact they don't capitolize GNOME in their blog post. Maybe they should have said "we're vaguely aware open source exists and we kinda open sourced some tools so that gives us street cred right?".
That would be a good new name for the GNOME project. It's what I imagine the GNOME hipsters saying to me each time I even just think about GNOME 3.
I thing Groupon's thinking was more like "Shit! They're willing to go to court over it!"
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
http://www.applerecords.com/ (yes, I chose that one ironically)
http://boardgamegeek.com/board...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...
http://www.thepalm.com/
http://www.niagaraparksgolf.co...
...okay, you win on Whole Foods.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Reading. Do you even?
Groupon was rolling out a Point-Of-Sale touch interface thin OS system, calling it Gnome. Perhaps you can see how this would possibly be confused with the GNOME touch capable OS, which is (at least in some Lowe's locations) installed on Point-Of-Sale systems.
Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
The GroupOn Global Code of Conduct start with "What Groupon Stands For: Do the right thing--follow the law, act ethically, and treat people properly."
This attempt to bully a non-profit for use of it's established trademark does not seem to be consistent with the stated code of conduct. For this to drag out from May to November seems to suggest that GroupOn had no intention of following it's own code of conduct. So, if there has been no policy in place at GroupOn to keep this from happening, how long will it be before another non-profit or FOSS project suffers from the same bullying at the hands of GroupOn?
I'm also curious to know, at what expense of resources did defending the GNOME trademark come at? Who is paying for the expense of resources? Does the projects GroupOn have on github really justify the set-back that GroupOn has created for the GNOME project?
This revision of the story from Sri Viswanath leaves me with more questions than answers and makes it very clear that GroupOn is not a company I ever want to do business with.
He he, nice come back... But you do realize that most of those are in completely different markets which doesn't make cause a conflict...
I don't see GNOME trying to bully out the Santa Gnome market: https://www.etsy.com/market/sa...
Gnu thinking on the part of the Groupon Collective?
How about "Fedora"?
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
I think it's close enough -- two large tech projects with the same name. If you're having a conversation about "using gnome" and the topic is technology, it would be confusing. Groupon's project presumably has "gnome" software running on it.
...gay.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Or groupon saw an opportunity to (cheaply) get some publicity and jumped at it. Publicity stunt?
Or groupon saw an opportunity to (cheaply) get some publicity...
Groupon thought they could ride on GNOME's huge popular consumer brand? Really?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Whilst I agree with you in general - about intellectual property and blowjobs if not the rest (fyi, no need to be gay to appreciate blowjobs).
The problem isn't so much that Groupon want to use the same name, but more that because of the ridiculous legal situation. If you don't "defend" your trademark you lose it and eventually you'll be in the situation of having Groupon stop you using "Gnome" because now it's their trademark.
One is a point of sale peripheral, the other is a Linux desktop environment. Okay, they're both 'technology', but that category is huge and getting broader every year. In any case, neither product is widely known, it's highly unlikely anyone would confuse one with the other, or that it would hurt either brand if they did. The case for trademark infringement is practically nonexistent.
That said, I'm glad Groupon is changing it; the Gnome has rubbed me the wrong way ever since it was announced. The name isn't reassuring on a device meant for handling financial transactions, the early prototypes were a bit too 'friendly' and OLPC-inspired, the current one is huge and clunky, and it lacks support for newer technologies like EMV and NFC. Hopefully this will send them back to the drawing board. Thanks, nerd rage! You saved the day again.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
The problem probably just finally got escalated inside Groupon. Before it was some stupid desk clerk thinking: Oh, some hobbyists I've never heard of are mad that their little programming club has the same name as our new terminal. No big deal.
Then it was "Sue them into next wednesday!" "Burn Groupon to the ground!" "Hang them higher!" and their response being "OMFG! It's a project that's FOSS and Linux and they are all friends with IBM, Oracle and Google. And they've got lawyers!"
Probably some exec with a clue got wind of the situation and concluded that "... yeah, they do have a case and this Gnome Project acutally isn't that small of a deal as one might think. And we have enough bad press as it is. Back down.".
Smart move I'd say.
And they even get a little neat publicity for playing nice.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Hate to say, but marketers can be the most oblivious people in the wold. They also create things and have the same feelings of ownership that many of us do when we cook up a heaping helping of awesome code. So, I'm not surprised by Groupon taking a minute to figure out where they stood.
Last year, the people at my company's marketing department emerged from their cave with a Hire Veterans campaign. Awesome. Except for the fact that the helmet they choose to cap the M-16 with was a Nazi Stahlhelm. When I pointed it out I got the "what do you, developer, know about marketing" response. I answered, "Three of our board of directors are Jewish."
-- $G
Roughly translated: "My side didn't win and it's not faaairr! WHAAAAAA!!!!!"
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
My question... does this represent Gnu thinking on the part of Groupon?
It's quite possible. Whatever else you may say about Groupon, it's undeniable that Groupon's Not Unix. In fact, it's likely that Groupon's Not Useful. Especially if their servers run the Hurd.
My question... does this represent Gnu thinking on the part of Groupon?
Gnobody Gnows.
Just another day in Paradise
Then for those of us who weren't familiar with either, it could easily be confusing, and thus the Gnome foundation did have a valid point.
Just another day in Paradise
Branding is for people who might not know, so the fact that people who know EITHER or the system would not be confused by it is as irrelevant as is the fact that Usain Bolt won the last two 100m Olympic gold medals.
If you know both projects, then the brand doesn't matter.
And in any case, why don't they try call it BMW or Mercedes Benz while they are at it, and see how far they get. Those companies are in completely different industries right? That wouldn't cause any issues at all right?
The GNOME foundation invented the word—nay, the letters themselves, carved and finished from wordstone hewn from the deep tunnels of the earth.
s/GNOME/Apple/
s/Apple/Android/
s/Android/Windows/
s/Windows/Palm/
s/Palm/Whirlpool/
s/Whirlpool/Whole Foods/
Clearly, all trademarks should be meaningless and indefensible.
You're trying to be snarky, but I agree with your snark. Name your product after a common object and you should not be able to copyright the name. It's a fairly simple thing to avoid.
As opposed to the Gnome Foundation's people pronouncing it, "guh-nome"?
I HATE that. They claim it's from pronouncing GNU as "guh-new". When I point out that the animal gnu is pronounced "new" and that since that animal is the mascot of the GNU project and that it too should be "new", they get all butt-hurt.
At least no one has called it "guh-rep" yet.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
We donated to Gnome to help them defend themselves against Groupon. Now they have stated that they will use the funds for the ongoing development. This is crappy message to all donors now and in the future - and a misuse of trust. Why? Because it will make it harder to convince future donors that this is a real emergency and not just a ruse to get money. If somebody asks for a donation for a specific purpose, than they should offer to reimburse the donors if that special purpose goes away. Gnome should really thing about the message they are sending here.
Wrong, Groupon wanted you to read it as "Know Me."
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
First, I don't believe for a moment you didn't know what the Gnome suite was. Second, you're simply speculating on what others who actually don't *would* think and - you can't read minds. Third, if I'm looking for a POS, I'll find a POS reference and not be interested in a suite and in fact, their web page lists not one single POS application amongst what's available. So, no, bullshit.
We're talking about a tablet with the GNOME name splattered all over it. Is it a point of sale terminal? Is it the latest tablet from Zareason?
How do you know really?
You don't.
POS systems look like general purpose computers anymore.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
they said, "Crap, the propellerheads found some money. Lost that bet."
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Ha, thats funny. Funny because they are shelfish Coral, shelfish.
The relevance of "closeness" in trademark law is highly variable; how courts will decide is often in doubt. At the extreme case, you have brands that are so well known that ANY use of the name will be seen as infringement - try to make Coca-Cola anything and see how quickly the lawyers converge on you. It wouldn't matter how unrelated your product was: a Coca-Cola computer or car would be shut down just about as quickly as a beverage.
What did Groupon's Gnome and the GNOME desktop environment have in common? They are both a POS.
(I don't actually dislike GNOME though it's not my favorite desktop environment. But I couldn't resist the joke.)
Don't be silly, blowjobs haven't been sex since 1998.
"My question... does this represent Gnu thinking on the part of Groupon?"
Nope, just means they had zero chance to win the lawsuit that was about to be dropped into there laps
Jack of all trades,master of none
Perhaps it occurred to them that you probably should not anger a large group of people who happen to have the skills to get back at you in some other perhaps not-so-within-the-law ways? A day or even an hour of downtime of other unrelated servers can be rather expensive. Just saying.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
The cynic in my says that Groupon did this intentionally to generate a firestorm of controversy to get themselves some free publicity. The only other possible explanation is that they are incredibly foolish.
You're welcome to call bullshit, but then you're wrong. I got out of software, and into management years ago, so I haven't kept up. Have I heard of Gnome, absolutely. Do I know or care what it is currently, no. What I do know is that companies who write code don't necessarily stick to a single area. The one I work for has written products for everything from cyber security, to networking, to environmental products. So, yeah, when Apple records got into it with Apple Computers, it was pretty obvious. Not so much in this case.
Just another day in Paradise
Sure it is. See the other replies.
Anyone who knows what EITHER of these systems are is not going to be confused.
Trademarks are not for people who already now off the system. It's not to protect the trademark holder but the consumer. In this case it's not only possible but probable that the consumer would be confused. For example, if groupon named their PoS system "Windows", that'd have gotten them sued, so why did they try that move with "Gnome"?
Groupon were being dicks, and it backfired.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
No, there is approximately ZERO chance of anyone confusing Gnome (which was a word long before Stallman decided to mispronounce it), a commercial product by a company called Groupon, with GNOME, a free window mangler by the GNOME Foundation, part of an organization that is explicitly designed to *prevent* commerce. Yeah, sure, people will confuse those.
Sorry, but from both the trademark law and a common sense points of view, the GNOME Foundation is simply engaged in self-righteous trademark bullying rather than valid defense of a mark.
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
I disagree. If I were the tech guy at say...Lowes (which, admittedly, I'm not), the similar name would be a point of confusion for middle management.
Manager: "Hey, I heard about this new Gnome thing that Groupon is offering to install for Significantly Reduced Prices. You've been bothering me for the last year about upgrading our own gnome system, why not let them do the upgrade?"
IT Guy: "There's a huge difference between GNOME and Gnome, sir."
Manager: "Doesn't sound like there is, they both do point of sale, and Groupon has TOUCH! Everybody wants touchscreens, right?"
IT Guy: "Please just kill me now"
Yes, there's a lot of copyright bullshittery happening...but despite my own personal distaste for the GNOME project, this is bigger than that. Given that Groupon was trying to establish a presence in a market that GNOME already had a presence in, I'd think it'd kinda fall into the realm of "valid defense of a mark".
To use the vulnerable car analogy:
The GNOME group was running a small dealership that gave away free mopeds with the "GNOME" name on them.
A nearby radio station decides to start up a motorcycle dealership, selling motorbikes they call "Gnome".
End result would be that if I say "I got a payout from my bitcoin miner, I'm going to go buy myself a gnome", you might not know whether I'm getting a moped or a motorbike.
Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com