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Smeegol encounters a ring of power
Smeegol is an implementation of the MeeGo user experience on top of an
openSUSE base; the 1.0
release was announced on October 6. On the 14th, the project was
told that it cannot use the "Smeegol" name:
"It is not in the benefit of MeeGo project to use 'Smeegol'. We
therefore can not approve such usage of MeeGo mark in 'Smeegol'. We
understand that you've already announced it and we will be happy to work
with you to come up with a different name (for the good of the MeeGo
project)." Some Smeegol developers are not pleased by this development and have
announced their intent to "push back"; meanwhile, openSUSE community
manager Jos Poortvliet has proposed
renaming the distribution to "DarkRider". What the final resolution will
be is unclear.
(Log in to post comments)
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 20:46 UTC (Thu) by DaleQ (subscriber, #4004) [Link]
> and we will be happy to work with you to come up with a different name
Hmm, let me think... Maybe 'Gollum'? :-)
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 22:18 UTC (Thu) by anandrajan (subscriber, #146) [Link]
Would Smeagol work or is that also a trademark violation (of Tolkien)?
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 15, 2010 10:24 UTC (Fri) by frankie (subscriber, #13593) [Link]
AFAIK Tolkien's copyright ceased years ago.
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 15, 2010 14:49 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Written in the 1960s? Of course it's still in copyright.
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 15, 2010 21:33 UTC (Fri) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]
Written in the 60s? I thought it was the twenties!
But it's the date the author died that counts, nowadays ...
(Checking Wikipedia, the Lord of the Rings was completed in 1948)
Cheers,
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 16, 2010 0:29 UTC (Sat) by chad.netzer (✭ supporter ✭, #4257) [Link]
Also, copyright expiry != trademark expiry.
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 16, 2010 14:16 UTC (Sat) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]
And even more to the point: a copyright does not automagically grant you trademark rights on the names of characters within it, and they're not using it to denote a fictional character anyway, so all the Tolkein estate could do would be to wave expensive lawyers at them.
Wait, what? :-)
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 16, 2010 19:33 UTC (Sat) by chad.netzer (✭ supporter ✭, #4257) [Link]
> so all the Tolkein estate could do would be to wave expensive lawyers at them.
Since there is a CGI "character" by that name, I would have guessed that the movie company lawyers would go balls out on obtaining a broad set of 'rights' to the name. However, USPTO trademark search finds nothing for "smeagol", just "gollum". And also a lot of other interesting "tolkien" trademarks...
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 21, 2010 20:43 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Was it? OK, I should have relied on something other than memory.
(I, I, I was... away from the Internet when I wrote that! Yes! ... that's convincing, isn't it?)
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 23:02 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] As I was out riding my bike (should have been working, but...what a glorious fall afternoon...) it occurred to me that, if Smeegol really proves unworkable, they should call it "Deegol" instead. It's still close enough to both themes to help people remember where it came from, but, hopefully, far enough to not be considered infringing.
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 21:28 UTC (Thu) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link]
I'm still disappointed nobody has made a derivative of MeeGo called, say, "Yuggoth".
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 22:13 UTC (Thu) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link]
hehehehehe they didn't like my idea of a mascot either
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 22:18 UTC (Thu) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link]
Disappointing. They look like some fun guys.
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 14, 2010 22:25 UTC (Thu) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link]
Darn it.. I forgot the :) on the end of the post.
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 15, 2010 7:46 UTC (Fri) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]
> Darn it.. I forgot the :) on the end of the post.
I think it was pretty clear!
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 15, 2010 18:26 UTC (Fri) by atai (subscriber, #10977) [Link]
If "MeeGo" does not work, how about "YouGo"
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 15, 2010 18:42 UTC (Fri) by cmccabe (guest, #60281) [Link]
How about renaming it to "MyPreciousss"
Smeegol encounters a ring of power Posted Oct 16, 2010 14:32 UTC (Sat) by jospoortvliet (subscriber, #33164) [Link]
Notice that I didn't really do a serious proposal on renaming it to Dark Rider or whatever, it was just an example - trying to get a bit of clarity from the LF. Which isn't easy as the thread on the mailinglist proves ;-)
First things first Posted Oct 17, 2010 18:38 UTC (Sun) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]
Strange that the lawyers go after people actually doing stuff and not, say, the people running meego.org, which I saw someone linking to today, apparently under the impression that it's some kind of community portal for the project. Surely the people riding the bandwagon for some advertising revenue are more legitimate primary targets for the lawyers.
Ridiculous Posted Oct 18, 2010 12:31 UTC (Mon) by sorpigal (subscriber, #36106) [Link] After inventing a terrible, terrible name like "Meego" they're objecting to the name someone else picked?
Ridiculous Posted Oct 18, 2010 12:47 UTC (Mon) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]
Terrible or not, it is the name they picked and the name that they want to enforce their trademark rights on. Although they do have the legal right, their approach seems a big fail to me. They should have explicit and hopefully flexible guidelines and a quick response to be successful.
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