> From: Aaron M. Renn [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
>
> > Open source is simply a phrase, incidentally preexisting the company
> >that trademarked it. As long as Sun uses it in that capacity,
> they are on
> >decent legal ground.
>
> Are you attempting to say that if we use "java" (in lowercase) to
> refer to a
> programming language similar to (but not identical to) Sun's Java, they
> can't sue us? I wouldn't be on it. If Open Source is properly registered
> as a certification mark, I doubt Sun could get away with using lower case
> open source either.
>
Too many companies and reporters refer to open source as though it were a
common term, so it is becoming one, and if SPI doesn't try and take it back
soon, it will be too late and will *become* one. They might be able to sue
Sun right now, but if they don't, then two years from now Microsoft,
claiming that Windows 2000 is open source, will be able to point out to the
court the 6 years of uses of the term open source and the fact that SPI did
not protect the use of the term. With trademarks, the argument "everyone
else is doing it, so why can't I?" actually holds up, since if everyone else
is using the term without reference to or permission from SPI, it has become
a part of the language, and loses much of its legal protected status.
--John Keiser
