[CentOS-devel] RPM of BrOffice.org

Wed Mar 25 13:15:59 UTC 2009
John Summerfield <debian at herakles.homelinux.org>

Manuel Wolfshant wrote:
> John Summerfield wrote:
>> Thiago Avelino wrote:
>>   
>>> The question is this. exists, the body of registered trademarks and
>>> patents, a company with the name openoffice. has only one image.
>>> nothing more. This is why the open sun, in Brazil, was broffice
>>>     
>> Originally, you said "patents and trademarks."
>>
>>   
> he made a mistake.

He may have, but I'd rather Thiago explain what he really means.

> 
> 
>> People are asking about patents, but you keep explaining why trademarks 
>> are a problem.
> once again: the name "OpenOffice" is registered in Brazil by a private 
> company and therefore it cannot be used by a software product.  To 
> circumvent this, the local community is using the name :BrOffice" instead.

yes, he said that several times. It has nothing to do with the patent 
claim which, as you say, may be a mistake.

I was curious about the trademark issue, so I pointed Google at Brasil 
and did a search. I didn't find the trademark owner (which doesn't mean 
a lot), but whoever it is is going to have a lot of trouble defending 
the mark. Whatever the folk behind broffice.org do, there are lots of 
other people using the term "open office" (which isn't its name - 
another trademark problem I think) to refer to the software.


-- 

Cheers
John

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