[CentOS] Linux Trademarked?

Fri Aug 19 16:02:04 UTC 2005
David Johnston <david at littlebald.com>

On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 10:55 -0400, William Warren wrote:
> http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25529
> 
> what's everyone's thoughts on this one?

Trademarks must be enforced or they disappear.  If the trademark on
"Linux" were to disappear, Linus would not be able to stop anyone from
calling anything Linux.  For example, without the trademark Microsoft
could rename Vista to "MS Linux" and there wouldn't be a thing anyone
could do.

Someone must enforce the trademark on Linux.  Linus has appointed the
Linux Mark Institute (LMI) as his trademark enforcement agent.  Linus
can change this later if he wants.

I trust Linus' intentions.  

As long as neither of these two point change, I will trust LMI.

Trademark lawsuits can be expensive.  As I understand it, LMI is
supposed to be a self-funding non-profit whose sole purpose is to
enforce the trademark.

-David