Hi everyone!

I've been getting tons of email about registering the name "FreeDOS"
as a trademark with the USPTO, so instead of just answering
individually (which was how I started out), I'll just send out a more
generic email.

Basically, the rules are fairly simple, and there really are just a
few simple basic issues involved:

1. I (and obviously a lot of other people) do not want to have
"FreeDOS" as a name associated with unacceptable (or borderline)
behaviour, and it's important that "FreeDOS" doesn't get a name of
being associated with scams, cybersquatting, etc etc.  I'd personally
hate that, for rather obvious reasons.  I _like_ being proud of
FreeDOS, and what has been achieved.  I'd rather not have to apologize
for it..

2. Trademark law requires that the trademark owner police the use of
the trademark (unlike, for example, copyright law, where the copyright
owner is the copyright owner, always is, and always will be unless he
willingly relinquishes ownership, and even THEN he ends up having
rights).

This is nasty, because it means, for example, that a trademark owner
has to be shown as caring about even small infringements, because
otherwise the really bad guys can use as their defense that "hey, we
may have misused it, but look at those other cases that they didn't go
after, they obviously don't care.."

3. Even with things that aren't scams or something like that, VALID
uses of "FreeDOS" may be bad if they mean that other valid uses of
"FreeDOS" are blocked.

Those are the kind of ground rules, I think everybody can pretty much
agree with them..

What the above leads to is 

- I'm required to ask people to acknowledge the trademark. When you
use the term "FreeDOS" in official marketing literature etc, you
should acknowledge it as a trademark owned by me.  Not because I love
seeing my name in print, but simply because of the "policing" issue
(#2) above.

- _Intent_ matters.  It matters a lot. 

If your intent is to use the word "FreeDOS" as part of a real FreeDOS
project, that doesn't mean that you automatically absolutely have to
get permission from me.  That's the LAST thing I want. I want
"FreeDOS" to be as free as possible as a term, and the real reason for
having a trademark in the first place was to _protect_ it rather than
use it as some kind of legalistic enforcement thing.

But, for example, if your intent is to register "myFreeDOS.com" (made
up example, I don't know if it is registered or not) only in the hopes
of selling the domain name for mucho dinero later, then that kind of
intent is not something I (or anybody else, I think) would find really
acceptable, because now the use of "FreeDOS" in this case has really
been a question of blocking somebody ELSE from using the term and
using it to get money.

This is where the cybersquatting laws come in, for example, allowing
the use of a trademark as a way to make sure that such squatting
activity does NOT happen.

- Being "specific" is _good_.  Being specific largely avoids the
problem of many people/organizations wanting the same name.

- Finally, you have to judge the "officialdom" and the importance of
the business side of your usage.  Not because I or anybody else really
cares all that much, but more because of the "pain factor" if the name
is asked for by somebody else.

Basically, ask yourself the question: "What if somebody else had a
project, and happened to chose the same name for his project as I have
for mine, how strong a protection do I want for MY version of the
project?"

Also, ask yourself: "Would anybody ever have reason to question the
name, and do I need to make provisions for protecting this particular
instance of it" (and note that "anybody" may not be me as the
trademark owner myself, but it may be a competitor who wants to make
life uncomfortable for you)

If you decide that you want some official protection from the mark,
that probably means that you want to own your own version of the
trademark, ie a "service mark" or a "combination mark".

So basically, in case the trademark issue comes up, you should make
your own judgement.  If you read and understood the above, you know
pretty much what my motivation is - I hate the paperwork, and I think
all of this is frankly a waste of my time, but I need to do it so that
in the future I don't end up being in a position I like even less.

Thanks,

-Jim Hall



*This email is a marked up version of Linus Torvald's email about
 the Linux trademark issue, reprinted on
 http://slashdot.org/articles/00/01/19/0828245_F.shtml