Re: Never ever use word BitKeeper if Larry does not like you

Pavel Machek
2003-03-15T12:09:17Z

Hi!

> > I would distinguish this from someone who is promoting their own
> > product, let's call it BillyBob's Linux, and who makes a claim
> > that it is "compatible with Red Hat Linux." So long as the
> > compatibility statement is not used prominently in the
> > advertising of the product and so long as the statement is, in
> > fact, true, this would likely constitute a fair use of our mark,
> > roughly along the lines of comparative advertising.
>
> Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer in any country.
>
> I think, fellow Stephen, you are missing the point. The example includes a
> trade name, "Red Cap" as the trademark for the new system. Now, I am not a
> lawyer but I have been exposed to some of the seamer side of trademark
> disputes, and "Red Cap" may well fail the trademark confusion test as not
> being sufficiently different from the original trademark to avoid a person
> from mistaking "Red Cap" for "Red Hat". The same, I assert, is true for
> "KitBeeper" and "BitKeeper".

When Larry claims that BitKeeper is too similar to bit bucket, I'll
roll on the floor, laughing, and print his words onto the
T-shirt. [Bit bucket is jargon term for /dev/null,
http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/b/bit_bucket.html]

[I hope you'll at least laugh after long thread full of legaleese.]

Pavel
--
Horseback riding is like software...
...vgf orggre jura vgf serr.