Vincent Delecroix wrote: > Hi, > > As you probably knows, Sage is also a company (http://www.sage.com). > It provides financial or buisness software solution. In particular, > the name "Sage" is a registered trademark at the Patent Office (UK) > under the number 2387 (?). It concerns any software dealing with > comptability and finance. > > The french foundation framasoft (http://www.framasoft.net/) was in > trouble with them in 2006 because of the publication of a notice > concerning an extension of Firefox named "Sage" (to read RSS). The > company wrote to them to clear the notice. But the law was not on the > company side because the registration concerned only "financial > software" ! (read the story in french at > http://framablog.org/index.php/post/2006/12/18/Framasoft-pas-Sage or > http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/33591-sage-framasoft-contrefacon.htm). > > What about SAGE for mathematics (there is a finance module) ? What is > the interaction between the registered name by the company and the > GPL ?
I see this is a future issue. I recall viewing one of the Mathematica seminars (many available free online) and seeing a pie chart showing Mathematica's usage in different areas. Finance was the single largest sector on that graph. A look on job sites for jobs requiring Mathematica skills, seems to indicate that the very few such jobs, are indeed mainly in finance. (Perhaps they are the only industries able to afford the software!!) The GPL does not stop someone selling a finance module for Sage. Legal issues with the company Sage might well do. So this could be an unfortunate restriction. Personally, I think this is only a matter of WHEN this happens, NOT if it happens. Of course, it's unlikely anyone will ever be able to prove that statement wrong! Renaming the project might not be popular, but it might be the best long-term solution to once and for all put an end to any worries. Note also, that any legal view of this would need to take into account a global view, not just the USA. Dave --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
