Re: [OT] Harassment of open source developer !
"der.hans" wrote:
>
> Am 04. Jul, 2001 schwäzte Balbir Thomas so:
>
> > Yet another case of open source developers being harassed. Adobe lawyers
> > ask developer of killustrator to pay fines for using a name that abuses
> > their trade mark illustrator. Go read about it at slashdot , and then
> > give your feedback to Adobe. I already did. We can't let such harassment
> > go without being protested. If I were a conspiracy theorist I would see
> > a pattern here . While corporation are leagly portected to indulge in
> > some kinds of "negative advertising" as a "competitive stratergy" open
> > source developer are sued because the english language words are now
> > "trademarks".
>
> Nothing new. In the 80's a New Yorker was sued for selling Hebrew Bookshelf
> or something. m$ said it infringed on their "bookshelf" series. It was
> software, so he lost ( or couldn't fight it, don't know which ).
>
> Try writing a "nutshell" book on something to do with computers and see what
> kind of messages you get from Tim O'Reilly ;-). He's even on our side and I
> still bet he'd sue.
>
I bet you're right that you'd get a lawsuit but, and I don't know much
about the law so anyone else feel free to make corrections, I don't
believe that you can trademark words that are in common use such as
"bookshelf" or "nutshell".
On the other hand, I've got "Perl in a Nutshell" right here and it seems
to contradict what I've just said. Here's what it says about it's
trademarks:
Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo
are registered trademarks of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. The
association between the image of a camel and the topic of Perl is a
trademark of O'Reilly & Associates.
So I don't believe that just by using "nutshell" in your title you'd be
infringing on their trademark but they probably would sue you and the
outcome would depend on the interpretation of the phrase "Nutshell
Handbook".
later,
Andy
Reply to: