[luau] Re: Which Distribution To Go With

[Hawaii Linux Institute]

Warren-

On September 5, 2003, RedHat filed for trademark registration of the 
name "Fedora"

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=7e61u9.2.2

If I remember correctly, you have been using the trade name "Fedora" way 
before that.  I am sure RedHat has you signed your right to Fedora to 
them (RedHat also secured a permission from Cornell University to use 
the same).  Of course I am not privy to your contract, but it can always 
be argued that this contract was entered into with the understanding 
that the name Fedora will be used by the world at large, subject to 
certain "standard" trademark limitations (see RedHat's URL on these 
limitations).  As long as you comply with those pro forma limitations, 
RedHat cannot sue you for using the name "Fedora", as doing so would 
make RedHat operating with a "dirty hand".  (This is what we commonly 
refer to as a "promisory estoppel", but I don't think this is a place to 
speak legalese.) If, OTOH, RedHat decides not to do anything with 
Fedora, then RedHat is abandoning this tradename, and it will be 
released to the public by default.

(This reminds me of an interesting story.  Some guy I knew in Houston 
registered the tradename "Internet Explorer" with USPTO before Microsoft 
used it.  Then he sued Microsoft and the case settled for a "mere" $5 
million.)

This brings up another interesting issue.  You cannot operate a Fedora 
mirror and call it as such without an approval from RedHat (because this 
would be a trademark infringement).  However, if you obtain the entire 
distribution it from anywhere, repackage it, and change its name to, 
say, "Warren's Linux"--just kidding--without any mentioning of Fedora 
(and of course, Red Hat), or whatsoever, then you won't have any 
problem.  Interesting? Remember when Mandrake first came out, it was 
RedHat + KDE, but Mandrake never mentioned the name RedHat?  This is not 
a theft, but a strict compliance with the trademark rules.

As a final thought. It is naive to believe that corporations can afford 
to full-heartedly support an open-source project, but it is also equally 
naive to assume that the open-source community with all the volunteer 
developers will work their butt out to satisfy "your" needs.  Thus, it 
is important to try to establish a community that will eventually take 
care of "our" own needs.  Now the thought about "Warren's Linux" may 
make sense.  Just kidding.  Maybe not.  wayne



Warren Togami wrote:

>On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 23:33, R. Scott Belford wrote:
>  
>
>>What would happen if, say in 5 years, that Red Hat was acquired by a 
>>competitor or underwent management changes that did not embrace the 
>>partnership with Fedora.  Would the Fedora name be held by the new 
>>company/management, or would it be released to the community?  Is there 
>>anything the company could do to inhibit the evolution of Fedora?  I 
>>think the project makes obvious sense for Red Hat, and the debian-like 
>>philosophy of package development is wise.  I am curious to know how it 
>>would withstand a takeover like the Novell purchase of Suse.
>>    
>>
>
>Ah... with that kind of possibility, I believe the outraged developers
>would fork.  I believe many current engineers at RH would also refuse to
>work there if the company suddenly turned evil because the vast majority
>of those developers believe in principles above all else.  Unless the
>situation dramatically changes, I believe it would be corporate suicide
>to betray their engineers and users in this fashion, because NOTHING
>stops everyone from moving to the fork immediately.  (Unless they are
>forced to sign non-compete clauses in contracts... which itself would be
>evil.)
>
>In the case of SuSE, I am guessing they are USED TO being proprietary
>and not-so-open, so there is no outrage.
>
>HOWEVER... there are some indications that Novell's recent acquisition
>in Ximian is changing this proprietary mindset in a profound way:
>http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=84723&cid=7393029
>http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=84723&cid=7393279
>http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=84723&cid=7393585
>
>Perhaps SuSE further puts Novell on the path toward enlightenment.  We
>will see.
>
>Warren
>
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