Fedora Dispute

[akonstam at trinity.edu]

On Sun, May 08, 2005 at 08:48:55AM -0500, Thomas Cameron wrote:
> >>This is really a tempest in a teapot.  The Cornell/UVA use and Red Hat's
> >>use of the name do not conflict.  One is for a digital management system
> >>and one is for a Linux distribution.  I suspect anyone who can spell the
> >>word "computer" will know that they are not the same thing.
> >>
> >>Cornell/UVA are making this into more than it is - Red Hat's own lawyers
> >>have said that they can't see any way that there could be a conflict. 
> >>See
> >>http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/20/HNredhatfedora_1.html for more
> >>info.
> >>
> >>Thomas
> >
> >I strongly disagree. It is RedHat that is making the problem by
> >wanting to trademark the name Fedora. There was not objection from the
> >Cornell/UVA group until RedHat took that action.
> 
> Red Hat is trademarking Fedora *as it relates to a Linux operating system 
> distribution.*  Red Hat admits that Cornell/UVA have prior use and are not 
> contesting that.  See 
> http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/20/HNredhatfedora_1.html, the 
> paragraph beginning "The researchers have common law rights that protect 
> their use of the Fedora name, according to Webbink."  Note that Webbink is 
> Red Hat's counsel.  Red Hat has made clear they have no intention of 
> interfering with Cornell/UVA's use of the Fedora name as regards to its 
> digital management system.
> 
> Read the info on Red Hat's filing at 
> http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78296509.  You will 
> notice that they are very specific about the trademark application being 
> for "Computer software, namely, computer programs for operating systems, 
> and instructional manuals provided therewith as a unit."
> 
> The Cornell/UVA folks and some people in the community are making more of 
> this than they need to.  Red Hat is not the villain here.  They are just 
> trying to protect the hard work they're doing with the Fedora distribution. 
> They have no desire to impinge on the Cornell/UVA folks, and it is a pretty 
> wild stretch of the imagination that this would ever happen.
> 
> Thomas 
We are spending too much time on this but your quoting of Webbink (the
name alone makes me suspicious) flies in the face of reality. Fairely
often a large corporation sues a smaller store or company for using
not only the exactly same name that they have trademarked but for a
name that is a pun on their name. If Cornell/UVA were not also
marketing software I would be more sympathetic that the trademarking
could not affect Cornell/UVA.
-- 

=======================================================================
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
		-- Dr. Who
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
One Trinity Place.
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200

telephone: (210)-999-7484
email:akonstam at trinity.edu