Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:32:40 -0500 (EST)
From: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
To: William Lee Irwin III <wli@holomorphy.com>
cc: Linux kernel mailing list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
       Pontus Fuchs <pof@users.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: Announce: ndiswrapper
In-Reply-To: <20031120225952.GO22764@holomorphy.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1031120182402.11021F-100000@gatekeeper.tmr.com>
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On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, William Lee Irwin III wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, William Lee Irwin III wrote:
> >> We may have to get Linus in on that.
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2003 at 05:47:08PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> > Linux is a trademark. And if you don't defend it you lose it (like asprin
> > and kleenex). So if he doesn't like the "Linux driver" from nvidia he can
> > tell them to stop using the term. I'm not sure that's a good thing,
> > however, they are more likely to drop support than open source IMHO.
> 
> Are we really going to cower when faced like an ultimatum like that?

What you me "we" here? Linus owns the trademark, he makes the decisions. I
can give him the name of a lawyer who did patent and trademark for GE for
decades, but I can't give him any advice. This is not a gut feel decision,
and "cower" sure sounds gut feel to me. That's probably not the optimal
consideration in this case. Failing to defend can mean losing a challenge
as well as doing nothing, the only advice I have on that is "consult a
good lawyer."

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

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