Re: Pervasive PostgreSQL Announcement

On Tue, 2005-01-11 at 10:14 -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:
> Bruce,
>
> > In fact we registered PostgreSQL only to prevent someone else from
> > registering it and blocking the community from using it. We want others
> > to use it for their products so if our registering it prevented you from
> > using it, that is a shame and is not what we intended, in fact the
> > opposite. We registered it so you would be safe to use it.
> >
> > Can someone explain how this is to be handled? I don't think the
> > trademark laws really encourage someone to trademark something so others
> > can use it and we should figure out a plan.
>
> Well, one obvious possibility is, once we get the Foundation approved by the
> IRS, to transfer ownership of the trademark to the Foundation. Then the
> Foundation can offer the trademark under a public license that explicitly
> gives permission to anyone to use it who is "using it properly", that is for
> a distribution of the PostgreSQL code.

Well you need to talk to a lawyer but Linux handles it this way.
Now saying that it has been a little lax in the last few years but
it is getting tighter.

http://www.linuxmark.org/

There is a legal expense in maintaining the trademark and there
is value in the trademark to people who want to associate with
the group. (Like Pervasive) So a small fee for using the
trademark usually isn't an issue as it is the normal quid pro
quo method of business and the lawyers feel better about
it. :-)

Tim

>
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Timothy D. Witham - Chief Technology Officer - wookie(at)osdl(dot)org
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