A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark [LWN.net]

A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark

Posted Sep 14, 2021 7:45 UTC (Tue) by chris_se (subscriber, #99706)
In reply to: A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark by NYKevin
Parent article: A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark

> Here's the view from the other side: https://postgresql.fund/blog/postgres-core-team-attacks-p...

Yikes. Read the negotiation terms he sent to the core team - it appears he's attempting to force changes to the organizational structure of the core team of PostgreSQL. I have no idea how PostgreSQL core team works in detail, and it could very well be that there are things there that I wouldn't like (or maybe I'd be completely fine with it), but the answer to any real or imagined issues there is not to register a trademark and then force something.

What's next, I register a trademark "Gnome" in some other category and respond to requests by the project with the condition that they get rid of client side window decorations, just because I don't like them?

To me this is an awful "view from the other side", because it makes him appear much more unsympathetic to me. My impression after reading both posts is that the PostgreSQL core team remained vague in their statement in some places to protect his reputation at least to some extent, and he completely failed to recognize the olive branch they've extended in that manner.

I do agree that he appears sincere, but that could make the whole proceedings so much more painful should he end up viewing himself as a martyr.

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A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark

Posted Sep 14, 2021 9:58 UTC (Tue) by intgr (subscriber, #39733) [Link] (1 responses)

> Read the negotiation terms he sent to the core team

Indeed. I dug a bit further, he has in the past also called for a change in the way the Core Team works.
https://postgresql.fund/blog/is-it-time-to-modernize-post...

Trying to force their hand via a trademark dispute seems misguided, almost guaranteed to fail and will just waste resources. Seems like a lose-lose situation. Did he make any attempt to raise these issues privately?

I think he raises some good points, particularly that the Core Team does not have a legal body and PGCAC, the most important organization, actually answers to its own board, not the Core Team.

And that transparency in these orgs seems lacking. Funnily the PostgreSQL Core Team page states "Starting in 2019, the Core Team are aiming to publish regular activity reports", and that was the first and only report ever published. (https://www.postgresql.org/developer/core/)

I'm an outsider so it's guaranteed that I'm missing some information.

A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark

Posted Sep 14, 2021 15:12 UTC (Tue) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link]

I don't disagree that there are possibly points of improvement. The most charitable explanation is that it is a well-meaning person going about it the wrong way.

But as for PGCAC being a problem and possibly going rogue, the answer to that is determined by the articles of incorporation and the by-laws (I think that's the correct term, here we call them statutes). AFAICT they are not on the website (here, they are public, not sure about Canada). Without them you can't really say what the board can and cannot do.

Trademarks & open source are tricky at the best of times. I see they use SPI for donations which is a much more mature organisation.

A disagreement over the PostgreSQL trademark

Posted Sep 14, 2021 22:21 UTC (Tue) by LtWorf (subscriber, #124958) [Link]

> What's next, I register a trademark "Gnome" in some other category and respond to requests by the project with the condition that they get rid of client side window decorations, just because I don't like them?

Oh… brb… got to register a trademark real quick!