[gridengine users] More Univa FUD???

[Joe Landman]

On 01/12/2012 02:14 PM, Rayson Ho wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Joe Landman
> <landman at scalableinformatics.com>  wrote:
>> More than merely wrong, it opens up the people/company who registered it to
>> legal action in the US if univa and/or gridengine are trademarks, or
>> copyrighted of a particular entity.
>
> Joe, you haven't showed up on the Grid Engine lists for a long while! :-D

Hi Rayson,

   Been lurking.

>
> "Univa" is a registered trademark (for computer software design, ... ,
> grid computing applications, etc, then the owner is Univa Corporation.
> For other industries, then the trademark is owned by other "Univa"
> companies).

The question is always one of possible market confusion.  If there is no 
possible confusion, then generally there is no issue.  This said, some 
companies who make otherwise fine products, have an  .... er .... 
unfortunate posture of filing iLawsuits against others for even remote 
similarities ... :(

>
> "Grid Engine" is not a trademark. I think Oracle/Sun can still
> trademark it, but others may not be possible to do so as we have 4
> implementations of "Grid Engine", plus Xoreax Grid Engine which has
> nothing to do with SGE. And if I understand the US copyright&

The US is a "first to file" regime, with proof of use of the trademark 
in market.  That is, you can't trademark something that hasn't actually 
been sold and in market yet.  Weird.

> trademark rules correctly, one can't trademark commonly used terms or
> words like "computer", "chair", or even "windows" unless one uses it

Heh ... well, with sufficient resources, you can try (e.g. Microsoft, 
Apple, ...).

> in a different context (like naming an OS "Windows"). On the other
> hand, Linus applied for the "Linux" trademark after Linux was wide
> spread, but he is the first person using the word "Linux" to refer to
> his products.

We've gone through this with our products ... I am pretty up to speed on 
what is required.  In short, the product has to be in market for at 
least 6 months before the mark can be granted, has to be non-conflicting 
(e.g. I can't create "Joe's Microsoft Windows" and trademark that, I'd 
be taken to court), and a bunch of other things.  Shortly after we 
received our mark for JackRabbit, we found out that Apache had a 
project, oddly enough, for "storage".  Its not overlapping, non 
conflicting.  Yes, you can have Apache JackRabbit on Scalable's 
JackRabbit, but they are in different markets, serving different needs. 
  No conflict as far as we are concerned.

There was a lawyer who had filed and was granted a trademark on Linux 
before Linus had it.  The USPTO had to effectively cancel the original 
assignment and reassign it to Linus.  I don't know the particulars of 
that case, but it was something of a source of concern in the mid/late 90s.

Its generally "first to file" and you have to show that you have a 
legitimate claim to it.  Without that legitimate claim (you own the 
products/IP/... that bear that name, etc.) this is problematic.

Windows et al are hard.  Not sure about Univa and GridEngine.  When 
reviewing things, the USPTO takes a very dim view of off by one names.

>
> Rayson
>
>
>
>>
>> --
>> Joseph Landman, Ph.D
>> Founder and CEO
>> Scalable Informatics Inc.
>> email: landman at scalableinformatics.com
>> web  : http://scalableinformatics.com
>>        http://scalableinformatics.com/sicluster
>> phone: +1 734 786 8423 x121
>> fax  : +1 866 888 3112
>> cell : +1 734 612 4615
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Joseph Landman, Ph.D
Founder and CEO
Scalable Informatics Inc.
email: landman at scalableinformatics.com
web  : http://scalableinformatics.com
        http://scalableinformatics.com/sicluster
phone: +1 734 786 8423 x121
fax  : +1 866 888 3112
cell : +1 734 612 4615