BSD-like licenses and the OSI approval process

[Chris Travers]

On 10/16/07, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu> wrote:
> Chris Travers wrote:
> >  Basically "Open Source" has seen widespread generic use which began
> > before the founding of the OSI.
>
> You keep saying this without elaboration.  Some evidence would be nice,
> since Rick has told you this is false (and has been rehashed here
> repeatedly).

I would start with:
http://www.opensource.org/history

Eric Raymond, Michael Tiemann and others started promoting the term in
1998 as an alternative to the term "Free Software."  For the next
three years, the term grew in use.  Only in 2001 was the OSI founded,
three years later.  In the mean time, the term "Open Source" was being
used commercially in a generic way to indicate software whose source
was freely available.

>
> The (limited) use before OSI referred to Open Source Intelligence
> (totally out of the field of computing), literally having opened the
> source (like "open source files in the editor"), or other obscure
> meanings.  See

Again, the question is whether promoting a term glogally in a generic
way for three years prior to forming this organization would preclude
any trademark protections.

IANAL, but it would seem to me that this is the case.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers