36 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
36 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
# Trademarks in Free Software
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The use of trademarks in free software has always been a curious and unclear
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concept to me, primarily due to my ignorance on the topic.
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Trademarks, unless abused, are intended to protect consumers' interests---are
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they getting the brand that they think they're getting? If you download Firefox,
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are you getting Firefox, or a derivative?
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Firefox is precicely one of those things that has brought this issue to light
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for me personally: the name is trademarked and derivatives must use their own
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names, leading to IceCat, IceWeasel, Abrowser, etc. Even though FF is free
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software, the trademark imposes additional restrictions that seem contrary to
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the free software philosophy. As such, it was my opinion that trademarks should
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be avoided or, if they exist, should not be exercised. (GNU, for example, is
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trademarked[^0], but the FSF certainly [does not exercise it][1]; consider gnuplot,
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a highly popular graphing program, which is not part of the GNU project.)
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[This article][2] provides some perspective on the topic and arrives at much the
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same conclusions: trademark enforcement stifles adoption and hurts the project
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overall.
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I recommend that trademarks not be used for free software projects, though I am
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not necessarily opposed to registering a trademark "just in case" (for example,
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to prevent others from maliciously attempting to register a trademark for your
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project).
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[1]: http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Trademarks.html
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[2]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20120902-00
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[^0]: uspto.gov; serial number 85380218; reg. number 4125065.
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From what I could find from the USPTO website, it was submitted by
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Aaron Williamson of the SFLC (http://www.softwarefreedom.org/about/team/)
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