[Cialug] Linux Trademark -- What do you think of this?

[Travis Beaty]

On Saturday 20 August 2005 04:26 pm, chris129 at cs.iastate.edu wrote:
> My initial reaction was bad too.  Mostly because of the price.  But then I
> realized, you really can't have an open trademark; that simpy doesn't work.
> That, plus, lawyers are way over priced these days.
> --Chris

Hello again,

My reaction isn't so much about the price -- it is more about principal.  Yes, 
"Linux" decribes in reality only one small (but important) part of the 
operating system, the kernel.  However, in popular culture, it has become a 
generic term, either a noun describing an operating system which uses that 
kernel, or an adjective describing a *kind* of operating system. 

Having a dad who worked for Xerox, I can tell you that I saw many a flyer in 
his toolcase that said "don't call just any copying machine a Xerox 
machine." (circa mid-1980s.)  Yet today, we routinely go forth and make xerox 
copies on a Canon copier.  The same is true with ye olde Kleenex.  If I go to 
find a Kleenex, a box with "Dollar General" on it will work just as well, and 
as far as I'm concerned, that's a Kleenex.  I don't think I've ever called 
that article a "disposable hanky."

I think the factor which Xerox and Kleenex share is simply this:  their names 
have taken on a life of their own, beyond what the creators had intended.  
They have become words in their own right, just like "velcro" and "radar."

I submit that the same is true of Linux, and if Linus Torvalds fears that he 
has lost control of that word ... well, he's right, he has.  And just like 
Xerox's experience, I don't think anyone is capable of reeling it in ... the 
only possible way would be to go out on some SCO'esque legal escapade.  That 
is, to some extent, what I fear LMI will become.

I'll close with that, but I have no doubt that this development is the 
Penguin's Pandora's Box.  All LMI has to do is win *one* suit over the 
trademark in Australia, and very bad things will begin happening in the 
community.  It has really prompted me to rethink the community impression of 
Saint Linus of Torvalds.

Regards,

Travis Beaty
Osage, Iowa.