Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263880AbTKTXoI (ORCPT ); Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:44:08 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264176AbTKTXoH (ORCPT ); Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:44:07 -0500 Received: from tmr-02.dsl.thebiz.net ([216.238.38.204]:5646 "EHLO gatekeeper.tmr.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263880AbTKTXoB (ORCPT ); Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:44:01 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:32:40 -0500 (EST) From: Bill Davidsen To: William Lee Irwin III cc: Linux kernel mailing list , Pontus Fuchs Subject: Re: Announce: ndiswrapper In-Reply-To: <20031120225952.GO22764@holomorphy.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1413 Lines: 31 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 CTO, TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/