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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Name changes to KDE apps in Corel Linux
From:       Mosfet <mosfet () jorsm ! com>
Date:       1999-11-05 2:23:55
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What specifically are the names you have used?

Erich Forler wrote:
> 
> I want to let everyone know about a change we've made in Corel Linux to
> the names of some of the KDE apps. We wanted to change the application
> names away from the "K" names to make them more intuitive and friendlier
> for users. However, we have changed more names than originally expected.
> The reason for this is as follows. We did trademark and copyright
> searches on the names of all the applications which we are including on
> the desktop. The search included all the applications names regardless
> of whether we had modified them or not. In some circumstances, the
> default names of the applications were identical, or too similar, to an
> existing trademarked name so we change those names. Generally, the
> addition of the "K" on the front of a name isn't enough to avoid
> trademark infringement. It might work, but I don't think any of us want
> to find out in court.
> 
> I am mentioning this for two reasons. First so that no one thinks we are
> trying to take ownership of all the applications by changing the names.
> But more importantly, to let everyone know that KDE is free to use the
> names we're using if they choose to. We have not trademarked the new
> names, we have simply made sure that they don't infringe on other
> trademarks. We have generally tried to find names which are generic and
> not possible to trademark so they're not very exciting but we/you won't
> likely get sued if you use them. Unfortunately, sometimes all the
> obvious names for an application were already trademarked and we ended
> up with one or two names that aren't great.
> 
> Hope this information is helpful.
> 
> Erich Forler
> Product Development Manager
> Corel Linux

-- 
Daniel M. Duley - Unix developer & sys admin.
mosfet@mandrakesoft.com
mosfet@kde.org
mosfet@jorsm.com

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