Follow-Up of the Linux Trademark in Germany

An Anonymous Coward writes "Apparently, the recent claim for the trademark "Linux" in Germany will be "properly" handed. According to this article (in German), Linus Torvalds holds the rights for Linux in Germany and the EU for quite some time. The German Linux user group LIVE has already unchained their lawyers to take care of the recent attempt to register Linux as trademark again. " Try Babelfishing the article.

Trademarks

[J. Pierpont]

They're just plain silly.

I hope the germans see fit to handle the situation properly.

-awc

translation

[KeefR]

Trademark laws for Linux belong to Linus Torvalds
Cologne: The trademark rights for Linux not only in the USA, but also in Europe belong to Linus Torvalds (German label 2088936, EU markenanmeldung 000851246).
This explained the chairman of the German Linux federation LIVE, Achim Cloer, on Wednesday after the news, that a Hamburg based system houses protected the word label ' Linux ' as a trademark at the German patent office. ' Linus Torvalds will not bear the violation of its rights and use all legal means against it' Cloer said.
The patent lawyer of the Linux federation, Rainer Feldkamp, which at the same time represents the interests of Torvalds in Europe, explained , the announced trademark protection of the Hamburg based system houses was not durable considering the existing trademark rights of Torvalds. 'we will immediately contradict thisnew trademark application, unauthorized by Torvalds, at the German Patent and Trademark Office', announced Feldkamp. 'There's no reason to get upset'.

Translation done with babelfish and my bad english from school.
Keef

...

[Signal 11]

Wait a minute.. something's fishy here. A group of linux users has lawyers? Oh my... I can see the rift in space-time forming already.

--

We have to work within the system

[konstant]

in order to subvert it. If Torvald's hadn't held prior use for the name Linux, what chance would users in Germany now stand agains this assault on their freedoms? Similarly, if OSI didn't hold a pending patent on "open source" or the FSF hadn't produced their legal GPL license, how long would the meaning of open source survive without dilution, and how long would the concept of free software survive the merciless world of capitalism?

It seems frustrating at times that we have to work within the strictures of the very society we're basically trying to overthrow. Personally, I sometimes feel as if we're just being allowed to play our little games by The Man :) I know that's paranoid, of course.

Will there ever be a time when lawyers won't be necessary to fight for our freedoms online? At what point will the need for those freedoms become "just obvious" to the average citizen or trial judge?

In my lifetime, I hope.

-konstant

another article

[KeefR]

There's another article regarding the trademark application at Heise [heise.de].
There's a statement from Roy Boldt, who applied for the trademark. He said, they did it because there were rumors, another firm wanted to get this trademark to make money from it. They only wanted to prevent this. According to his lawyers the trademark 'Linux' isn't protected in germany, contradicting german linux federation LIVE.

So enough bad english for today,
Keef

Re:...

[Nerdy Spice]

The rift is actually a disguised gas nebula.
My guess, for what it is worth, is that the
German Linux group has a member who is a lawyer
(or who is close friends with a lawyer).
In law, as in many other human (and cat) activities, you sometimes have to make yourself
look big to scare off the bad guys. Some lizards
raise spines on their backs, cats arch their backs, and people wave lawyers around. Sometimes
that's all it takes if the opponent is a cowardly
opportunist...

Maybe the users *are* lawyers?

[Russ Nelson]

After all, Word Perfect, the standard word processor in the legal profession, runs under Linux.
-russ

Verb?

[flanker]

babelfish v. To translate from one language to another using a web-based application. ex. Try babelfishing it.

I hope the Webster's people are paying attention.

Here we go again...

[alsta]

As much as I hate to admit it, people are simple beings of extremely low levels of intelligence it would appear. I am not talking about the one individual, but about the acts of entire groups of people. Especially this scenario where somebody feels very competent to register a trademark for something evolving as the big thing. Hey folks! I hear GM is going to start selling a lot of cars in Abu Dhabi, so I am going there to start a company and register a trademark called Chevrolet. What in the world is wrong with these people, one might think? I suppose it is greed and silly minds that make up for these idiotic schemes. Don't get me wrong, I would love to make money, but this is rather stupid.

Sincerely, Alexander

Re:We have to work within the system

[number7]

I have to agree with this up to a point. That point being the money threshhold. GPL, open source, and Linux never would have had to worry about any of this crap if it hadn't become so popular. People can now make money in this, and take advantage of the ignorance of the courts and patent office ( such as the patenting of ad delivery systems ). I do feel happy (lucky?) that some groups had the foresight to realize that you always have to pander to the lowest common denominator. It's the price we pay for being in a (somewhat) free system. No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. - H. L. Mencken

Re:Verb?

[eMBee]

babelfish v. To translate from one language to another using a web-based application.

incorrect!
correct is:
babelfish v. to translate from one language to another by the use of a fish stuck in your ear. i ~ed this text for you

your above mentioned web-based application is only a poor interface for those who are to afraid to stick a fish in their ear.
actually the text you enter in the web-interface is read aloud to a group of people, each with a fish in their ear. the person who's native language is the one requested will simply type what he hears and the web-interface will then output the typed response.
(note that the translation has already been done by the fish, so this should really be an easy task)
the poor quality of the translation stemms purely from the fact that altavista was to cheap to hire experienced typists.

Someone isn't doing their homework

[aphrael]

The original post (by channel one) reminded me intensely of the fact that the US government is going around patenting the human genome under the theory that if they don't, someone else will; Channel One _appeared_ to be using the same logic.

But now it turns out that they were _wrong_ ... someone else had already secured the rights. So Channel One has done what, precisely, except embarass itself (claiming the rights were open when they weren't) and confusing a lot of Americans?

I wonder if the name FreeBSD is protected in Germany?

civil law v. common law

[/]

Civil law systems have had a long history of trying to lawyer-proof the legal system by making laws so clear that there's no need for interpretation, but it has pretty much always been a rousing failure. Complexity is inherrent in any such system, 'cause the competing interests that the legal system is supposed to arbitrate are inherrently multifaceted (and well-funded).

When will government (or individuals using government to their ends) stop trampling on the disfranchised? Not in this universe.

EC trademark vs. German trademark

[Anonymous Coward]

To clear up some things:

1. Linus holds the trademark "Linux" in the EC (European Community).

2. Linus had not filed a claim for the trademark "Linux" in Germany so far. That's the reason why others ("The Hamburgers" as The Register told them) could file a claim for the trademark and so far succeeded concerning the German roll of trademarks. Note that you can still register a trademark for use in the EC while there's an older claim in Germany already enrolled.

However, because Linus already owns the trademark "Linux" in the EC and can proof its use and the Hamburgers most probably can't proof their use of the mark "Linux" (in Germany!) before it has been taken into use by other people, Linus will most probably gain what can be roughly translated as "existence protection" (Bestandsschutz) for his trademark (Gasp! What a sentence). He and others have used it in Germany before the date The Hamburgers claimed to have. This way Linus can get the title to cancel the other trademark claim.

Germany in the EU

[jsm2]

According to his lawyers the trademark 'Linux' isn't protected in germany, contradicting german linux federation LIVE

My understanding is that "Linux" is a trademark in other EU states, and that this trademark protection is enforceable in Germany (I happen to know that trademarks are EU-wide under EU law). So, it's not specifically trademarked in Germany, but that doesn't mean that someone else can steal the [tm]

jsm

Re:Verb?

[ralphclark]

I think it was Hemingway who pointed out: "There isn't a noun that can't be verbed."
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction

If only...

[orcrist]

Linus had gone ahead and registered "Linux" at the UN right at the beginning when he came up with the term, then we could submit a Security Council resolution to send in an international force against any entities who violate his trademark. That could have saved us a lot of trouble. Sheesh.

Chris

Re:another article

[fk]

Hello all !

It was never our intention to "grab" the brand and use it to our advantage. For details please have a look at our statement on the brand registration for "Linux" (www.channel-one.de) available in both german and english.

Sorry for the confusion we caused.

Regards

Frank

Channel.One GmbH