Does Debian need Linux trademark license? [LWN.net]

Does Debian need Linux trademark license?

Posted Jun 23, 2005 18:35 UTC (Thu) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
In reply to: Changes at the Linux Mark Institute by cate
Parent article: Changes at the Linux Mark Institute

From what I've seen, the law in the US and Europe is pretty liberal about finding trademark infringement. Anything that could cause confusion among even the dumbest people has been found infringing. A dumb, or even pretty smart person could think that the whole "Debian GNU/Linux" package carries the Linux brand, rather than just containing one piece which does.

I quite often see products named analogous to "Debian, featuring the Linux kernel." I presume that's just to avoid such confusion, since it's not a very easy name.

Concerning Linus' stated opinion on whether Debian has a problem: With the Bitkeeper I-told-you-sos still echoing, I think Debian people should be concerned about proceeding based on an assumption that the trademark owner won't exercise his legal rights. Linus' opining that no license is required says something, but his declining to give a license says something else.

There's one thing I'd like to add, in case people think honorable users of the Linux mark don't need to worry about legalities because Linus is a good guy. As a contract lawyer, I frequently have parties that think it's a waste of time to make the contract say what they actually mean, because they trust each other and have a separate understanding. I could argue with them about their naivete concerning human nature, or explain how honorable people frequently end up with opposing views of something. But the easiest thing to do is just point out that your partner may not be who you think it is in the future. If Linus dies or goes bankrupt, the owner of "Linux" is someone we don't know. And here's the best part: That someone's legal duty is to get as much money as legally possible from the asset, for the benefit of the estate.

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