On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Damien Katz <[email protected]> wrote:
> Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. > > The name of the official project is Apache CouchDB. I see CouchDB as being > like Linux, where (as far as I know anyone) is free to use the name. So, IMO > it is completely fair to name a company CouchDB Ltd. But it also means > anyone else can name their company CouchDB LLC or The Real CouchDB Ltd. This > is a bigger problem. You don't have a defensible trademark. I too am not a lawyer (but it's fun to pretend on the internets)...I have studied this quite a bit though. And actually, there is a trademark held on Linux, held by Linus, and it is enforced every so often... He actually didn't want the mark, and never filed for it, but some prick swooped in in the mid 90s and registered it, then started suing for royalties. So eventually he had to swoop in and sue for control over it. Nobody did much to enforce it until 2005 when they caught some flack for sending out a bunch of letters demanding money to use the mark, but there really is a *enforce it or lose it *provision in trademark law. It's all the wikipedia page...a pretty interesting saga. Has anyone registered a trademark on CouchDB yet? The Linux saga suggests it's probably a good idea, and something Apache legal should be able to help with. That's about the extent of my trademark knowledge, but if I had to guess I'd say CouchDB Ltd. may be a little *too *close in order for Apache to keep the mark, or at the very least there should be some sort of sublicensing agreement and token fee. Just my two cents -- in any event congrats to the couch ltd team! It's great to see more folks making money working on what they love, to the benefit of all of us!
