Arduino Dispute Reaches Out To Distributors

szczys writes Two companies are claiming ownership of the Arduino Trademark. The most recent development in this sad state of affairs is a letter from Arduino SRL to long-time Distributors of Arduino products. SRL is claiming they are the real Arduino, but there are some tasty tidbits including a Q/A section with some peculiar answers. From the article: "In short, Arduino LLC has been working on developing the Arduino platform, software, and community while Smart Projects / Arduino SRL was the major official producer of the hardware for most boards. Both are claiming to 'be' Arduino, and going after each other in court. So it’s not strange that Arduino SRL would like to try to keep its hold on the distribution channels."

Comments

Should be simple

[kelemvor4]

From TFA:

It turns out that Smart Projects had trademarked the Arduino brand in Italy in December 2008, before Arduino LLC got around to filing in April 2009 in the USA.

So... what's to discuss. I don't think there's a law against being a complete asshole, so smart projects wins.

Re:Should be simple

[BarbaraHudson]

Arduino SLR only filed for the US trademark in September of last year, and it hasn't been granted yet. Arduino LLC (Massachusetts) filed in 2009 and was granted the trademark in 2011. So in the US, Arduino SLR is infringing on Arduino LLC's trademark and their attempts to coerce distributors are tortious interference.

Re:Should be simple

[Anonymous Coward]

The article also indicates that Arduino LLC trademarked the name in the U.S. in 2009, and that Smart Projects had been paying royalty fees to Arduino LLC until recently. Those additional facts seem to suggest that until recently, Smart Projects considered LLC to be a rightful holder of the trademark. Why did their theory change?

Re:Should be simple

[BarbaraHudson]

The problem with that point of view is that Arduino SLR for years paid a royalty to Arduino LLC to use the name and logo. The Arduino SLR trademark was the equivalent of a "submarine patent" - one of the partners in the development of Arduino (who also did the manufacturing) filed a trademark application in his own name, before the group filed their trademark application, then waited years to pull this stunt, all the while paying a license fee so as not to tip his hand.

He only did so because Arduino LLC was going to go to a supplier with a much lower cost, so he was going to lose his profits from manufacturing, which are significant because he's selling them at 4x the cost of clones.