Serious trademark trouble.

Ean R . Schuessler ean at brainfood.com
Sat Aug 12 20:00:33 UTC 2000


I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but I must have missed any
discussion that occured on it. It appears that our lack of action on an 
Open Source trademark (bickering, bad communication, et. al) has created
a serious problem. A commercial organization (Navant Corporation) has filed
for a trademark on the "Open Source" term, with the following area of
business interest.

"Computer Services, namely, providing access to interactive computer 
 programs and templates for the creation and development of- Intranet 
 and Internet sites; online training tools; content management; online 
 presentations; workbooks and educational materials; and web sites for use 
 in electronic commerce; distributorship services in the field of computer 
 software, namely licensing of computer software programs for use in the 
 field of web site development, interactive online training tools, content 
 management and online educational materials." *

Left unchallenged, this mark will present a serious problem for anyone 
wishing to use the term "Open Source" in the manner it is intended to be.
I should hope that members of OSI, SPI, Linux International and other
organizations can put aside whatever misunderstandings have prevented 
useful cooperation in the past to address this issue.

On the other hand there may be action underway on this topic that I have
not been aware of.

Best regards,
E.Schuessler

* http://trademarks.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+ALL+3+980857+0+1+109045+F+8+8+1+MS%2fopen+AND+MS%2fsource

-- 
_______________________________________________________________________
Ean Schuessler                Director of New Products and Technologies
Brainfood, Inc.                  The Unstoppable Fist of Digital Action
--- Some or all of the above signature may be a joke



More information about the License-discuss mailing list