Re: Need to pay to use the word "Linux" in commercial products/services!

[Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu>]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 07:24:42PM -0500, Jon Masters wrote:
> > 
> > The GPL protects copyrights not trademarks. The Linux trademarking is an
> > interesting question and I know a lot of companies take the view that the
> > mark is unenforcable. On the other hand it stops abuse of the name for
> > other unrelated software.
> 

In addition, the Linux Mark Institute will give sublicenses free of
charge for pretty much any reasonable uses where the Linux Kernel is
used.  (i.e., if someone wrote a Microsoft .NET application that whose
only use was to send scary legal letters to Linux users, and some
software company wanted to market this "Linux Blackmail Generator" as
a program marketed to companies which held Patents but produced no
useful products or services --- i.e., Patent Trolls --- I might well
imagine that someone from LMI might cough, and say, "I don't think
we'll give you a sublicense to use Linux in such a way).

> Personally, I love washing my clothes with Linux detergent :)
> 
> They tell me it's also a popular Operating System kernel.

Trademarks are specific to a specific area.  My favorite example was
the British advertisements for vacuum cleaners, "Nothing sucks like a
Vax" back when I was hacking BSD 4.3 systems on a Digital Vax/750.  Of
course there can be problems when companies expand beyond their
original areas of their trademark registration --- hence the conflict
between Apple Computers, Inc., and Apple Corps (a holding company
which owned Apple Records and the copyrights to Beatle's music) when
Apple started expanding into their iPod and iTunes store business.

      	      		     	   	    	   - Ted