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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Name changes to KDE apps in Corel Linux
From:       Gary Meyer <gary () meyer ! net>
Date:       1999-11-05 8:28:37
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Also, is there anyway to trademark or copyright the names with GPL so nobody
else can take them?

You seem to describe a process to confirm that nobody else has taken the
names yet.  What prohibits someone from taking one of those names tomorrow?

-- Gary

Mosfet wrote:

> 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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