Monday, June 07, 2004

Open Source-Open Trademarks too?



Vollwaschmittel is a detergent popular in German speaking countries. The company does not use Linux as a technology term and has been immune to legal action from Linus.

More Linux trademark trivia:
Trademark SN: 1916230 is owned by Linus Torvalds, registered for "Computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation." The assignment of the trademark to Torvalds occurred after an attorney, one William R. Della Croce, Jr, in 1996 began sending letters to various Linux distributors claiming to own the "Linux" trademark and demanding 10% royalties. The distributors rapidly pooled resources, appealed the original trademark assignment and had it reassigned to Linus Torvalds. The licensing of the trademark is now handled by the Linux Mark Institute.

4 comments:

Epiphany said...

gud 1 man...where did u get this info from?? wiki?

Praveer said...

Operating System is like a parachute !
It doesn't work unless its open !
HAIL LINUX !!
It works !

Praveer said...

Is it freely downloadable over internet ?
and I also heard the older versions of linux had a problem in thread clean-up ?
I mean why call it a detergent if it cant even clean threads let alone full fledged clothes ?

Smart-Alecky said...

So now you are going more Germanic way, now you even know German detergents other than Henko.