Open Source trademark error in CACM

Lists: spi-general
From: Chris Ingram <chris(dot)ingram(at)acm(dot)org>
To: tim(at)oreilly(dot)com
Cc: crawford_d(at)acm(dot)org, spi-general(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org
Subject: Open Source trademark error in CACM
Date: 1999-04-07 04:02:46
Message-ID: Pine.BSF.3.96.990406223428.5613B-100000@ravine.binary.net
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Lists: spi-general

Mr. O'Reilly,

In your article in the April 1999 issue of _Communications of the
ACM_ titled "Lessons from Open-Source [sic] Software Development", I
believe that you state an incorrect fact. In the first sentence of the
second paragraph you state, "Officially, open source (which is a
trademark of the Open Source Initiative - see www.opensource.org)..."

Searching the US Patent and Trademark Office database (available at
http://www.uspto.gov/tmdb/) reveals that the term "Open Source" is a
certification mark of Software in the Public Interest (SPI). This is also
the assertion on their web site at http://www.spi-inc.org/trademarks/.
SPI indicates, however, that the trademark is managed by Eric Raymond,
who happens to be the founder of the Open Source Initive. OSI does not
own the trademark. Please make a note of the error and have it
corrected. Thank you.

--
Chris Ingram
Chris(dot)Ingram(at)acm(dot)org


From: Joseph Carter <knghtbrd(at)debian(dot)org>
To: Chris Ingram <chris(dot)ingram(at)acm(dot)org>
Cc: spi-general(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org
Subject: Re: Open Source trademark error in CACM
Date: 1999-04-07 19:58:39
Message-ID: 19990407125839.A27928@debian.org
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On Tue, Apr 06, 1999 at 11:02:46PM -0500, Chris Ingram wrote:
> Mr. O'Reilly,
[..Nice letter saying Stop abusing SPI's service mark. Thank you!..]

You've made my day. =>

--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd(at)debian(dot)org> Debian GNU/Linux developer
PGP: E8D68481E3A8BB77 8EE22996C9445FBE The Source Comes First!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sorry if the following sounds combative and excessively personal,
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