It's my impression that the trademark would be donated to the ASF to avoid this problem. I'm not sure though.
geir Leo Simons wrote: > On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 03:43:13PM -0400, Bob Scheifler wrote: >> Leo Simons wrote: >>> I guess this means keeping jini.org around for a long time to come, and I >>> think >>> this means you need a name for "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" which is not "jini" :) >> Could you expand on why you think that? Thanks. > > IANAL and not an expert but I can try. > > More concretely, "jini" is a name/brand/trademark which seens to > be governed by eg > > http://www.sunsource.net/TUPPCP.html > http://www.sun.com/suntrademarks/ > > And is owned by sun for which there are rather strict guidelines: > > http://www.sun.com/policies/trademarks/ > > Similarly, terms like "apache", "jakarta", "tomcat" are also marks > (even if not registered) which are somehow "owned" by the ASF (and > we have a PRC committee to protect them). > > When "SpamAssassin" entered incubation the trademark (which was > registered) ownership was transferred to the ASF, so the name was > kept for the new project. > > If the "jini" name is not "owned" by the ASF (not just legally, also > morally), we shouldn't name our software directly after it, for a > variety of reasons, like > > * its less confusing for users > * it avoids potential legal worries > * it avoids a whole lot of discussion, hurt feelings, etc. > * if a project ever outgrows its original boundaries a bit > (happens quite often, for example lucene had a C port while > it was still at jakarta) its not a problem > > This is why there is no java.apache.org but instead there is > jakarta.apache.org, there is no j2se.apache.org but there is harmony, > there is no j2ee.apache.org but there is geronimo, etc. > > There was, in fact, at some point, a java.apache.org, and IIUC the ASF > got a lot of flak about that from sun legal (and rightly so). > > While its quite possible to change names halfway through incubation, > in general IMHO its just easier to "bite the bullet" up front because > various resources (jira projects, svn repositories, mailing lists, etc) > are coupled to the name. > > To answer another question, yes, I believe this also means that there > should be no "jini" in the name. There's a variety of creative ways > most open source projects deal with that, like putting lots of extra > letters in and around a word, naming by association (so you end up > with "Apache Aladdin" since that's about genies too), or naming through > acronyms (so you end up with "Apache JiKit" for "JIni Kit"). > > I hope the above is clear. I'm really no expert. If there's need for > further details, I would suggest talking to a trademark/branding lawyer > or two. But usually its just a lot easier to pick a new name, so that's > what we tend to do :) > > LSD > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
