Print - Linus Torvalds Involved in Linux Trademark Battle

In a move that was originally considered controversial in the open source community, Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system, has begun protecting his trademark for the term "Linux." The computer genius says he is doing so to protect users from unauthorized and confusing use of the term. But critics are worried that Torvalds' move is too little, too late, because the Linux name has been widely used for over a decade. Torvalds first trademarked Linux several years ago but has rarely defended its usage.

News of the sudden trademark protection arose after several computer firms in Australia were contacted recently by lawyers acting on behalf of Torvalds. Companies using the name Linux in their products or company names would have to relinquish any legal rights to the name and pay licensing fees for its use, they were told by letter. Many of these companies originally suspected that the letters they received about this event were fake, and were perhaps a money-making attempt from some unscrupulous person.

When Torvalds revealed that the letters were real, many in the open source community acted with outrage, shocked that Torvalds would seek to benefit financially from the Linux trademark. But Torvalds reported that the licensing fees don't even cover the operational costs of the legal entity, Linux Mark Institute (LMI), which he has set up to license the trademark. So it's not a money-making venture at all. According to Torvalds, LMI is the "worldwide exclusive licensee of the Linux trademark for the purposes of protecting that trademark from misuse." And even if LMI does make money, Torvalds says he "won't see a cent of it."

The licensing fees for Linux are modest. LMI is charging $200 to $5000 for each license, and the fee is based on "the sub-licensee's projected revenue in connection with the sub-licensee mark(s)," according to the company. Most sub-licensees end up paying $200 to $500 for a Linux license, says Jeremy Malcolm, an Australian lawyer representing LMI and Torvalds.

Now that the letters have been proven legitimate, most Linux companies have enthusiastically agreed to the licensing terms. And of course, Torvalds is wise to protect his Linux trademark, because otherwise the term could be misused by other companies and thus lost forever. "Trademark law requires that the trademark owner police the use of the trademark," he wrote in a posting online this week. "This is nasty, because it means, for example, that a trademark owner has to be shown as caring about even small infringements, because otherwise the really bad guys can use as their defense that 'Hey, we may have misused it, but look at those other cases that they didn't go after, they obviously don't care.'"

Vise-Grip. Channel Lock. Kleenex. All widely used terms that have challenged those organizations' ability to maintain their trademarks. I hope Linus Torvalds is able to keep the Linux name. With all his contributions, he definitely deserves it.

That's why Microsoft comes up with such interesting names as "Windows 98 Second Edition" or "Windows Exchange Server 2003", or the remarkable "Windows Me". No one would bother trying to steal ridiculous names like those. Genius, I tell you. Genius.

Windows is lame. Linux is appealing because of their cute mascot, "Tux". Microsoft needs a cute animal icon to make them look lively and relevant. How about a dinosaur? That would work on a LOT of levels!

"Windows is lame. Linux is appealing because of their cute mascot, "Tux". Microsoft needs a cute animal icon to make them look lively and relevant." Could you stop using your toddler sesame street brain to think?

Windows is a good name if you think about why it was named that way. Linux is not even something relating to computers. I just a made up word. Apple is even less. Go bash the windows name. It's acutally a good name.

Maybe bill gates should have been as cheesy as Torlvalds and named windows "Gateux". Or "Allenux" or "Ballmerux". Or go stupid as apple and name it "Peach" or "Grape". Or how about "applux". bottom line. Linux and apple have as creative a name as what a 2 year old learning to speak would say.

trademark enforcement of linux is great. Now you'll know that whare you're buying will require you to recompile a kernel every month.

"trademark enforcement of linux is great. Now you'll know that whare you're buying will require you to recompile a kernel every month." I know he's trying to say something... but what?

"Go bash the windows name. It's acutally a good name." It's sort of an unimaginative name, though.

"Linux and apple have as creative a name as what a 2 year old learning to speak would say. " You can't even put together a clear, grammatically correct sentence. Why should anyone care about your views on Linux and Apple?

"Microsoft needs a cute animal icon to make them look lively and relevant." I thought that Microsoft already has "Microsoft Bob" for that.

"Windows is lame. Linux is appealing because of their cute mascot, "Tux". Microsoft needs a cute animal icon to make them look lively and relevant." How about a tiger seal? They eat penguins in the wild, don't they? The seal mascot could be called "Winnie" and be used in a massive ad campaign. When you boot up your Windows computer, you could have it start up with the sound "Arf! Arf! Arf!", and a cute cartoon picture of "Winnie" would bounce around the screen. I think it could actually draw some excitement and interest to the Windows platform, which has long had the reputation for being "uncool" by some people. Perhaps Bill Gates could even make some TV or print ad commercials with Winnie. How about something like a picture of the Linux penguin in the background looking all sad and depressed and alone on an ice berg, with a smiling Bill Gates with his arm around Winnie with both smiling at the camera? The caption of the ad could be something like "Welcoming a new member to the Windows family: Meet Winnie! Arf! Arf! Arf!"

Windows is the biggest disaster in the feild of operating systems and it is now going to destroy whole the innocent servers which are accidently running windows or are slave of windows unfortunately. Linux is the open software who belives in freedom thats it.

"It's sort of an unimaginative name, though." Maybe, but its a simple word. Everybody knows what a window is. And if you think about it, you look through a window to see the world. Try to mimic linux using the deft language ^^ Now for the Linux name, I have no business-oriented opinion. Although its an easy name to remember, it doesn't mean anything. But copyrighting the name might be a good idea. It may help people understand that freeBSD is not linux.

I'm willing to bet that the only reasons why more people use Linux than, say, Mac OS X, is because Linux is free and can run on crap hardware. Arguably, both of those reasons are true for the majority of Windows users.

"I'm willing to bet that the only reasons why more people use Linux than, say, Mac OS X, is because Linux is free and can run on crap hardware. " My wife owned a a Dell when we got married, and I worked on it when its hard disk died. I was amazed by the poor quality of its design and construction. (I think my words to my wife was that it was a "flimsy piece of garbage"). But perhaps that's what people want in this age of disposable appliances and hardware: Something super-cheap that hopefully hangs together for a few years before it gets tossed out.

"Windows is the biggest disaster in the feild of operating systems and it is now going to destroy whole the innocent servers which are accidently running windows or are slave of windows unfortunately. Linux is the open software who belives in freedom thats it." Shut up Beavis. What the he$$ are you saying.

Windows is a brilliant name. Do you remember the days when you typed "Win" at the DOS prompt to start windows.

"Windows is the biggest disaster in the feild of operating systems..." The Windows scurge will surely tip the globe from its axis and send us all reeling into the universe erasing all life in frozen expanse of the vacuum of space ... Or maybe we'll all patch or recompile our operating systems on a regular basis until we die.

"Windows is a brilliant name. Do you remember the days when you typed "Win" at the DOS prompt to start windows. " Arf! Arf! Arf!

"Windows Exchange Server 2003" - that's a new product I haven't heard of before...

Some of us leet people didn't even have to type Win at DOS prompt because we knew how to make it start... Automatically!

"Some of us leet people didn't even have to type Win at DOS prompt because we knew how to make it start... Automatically!" Yeah - and I had a dos menu to configure the memory too :o) aaahhhhh the good old days

Why is "Windows" an unimaginitive name? Linux is a more unimaginitve name because it's literally just Linus-Unix shortened. Windows is a random word from the end of the dictionary that depicts being able to visualise your tasks. Anyway, nice to Linus charging money. He deserves something for all his hard work.

iPods now hold the entire Amazon US top ten sales slots and 12 of the top 20 computers sold through Amazon US are Macs. www.apple.com/switch

"Windows - For getting real work done, such as SQL, Exchange, developement tools, ubiquitous office suite apps, accounting software needed to run businesses, print services, terminal services" SQL Server and Exchange suck and are riddled with security holes every month. OS X runs industrial-grade UNIX software that powers the Internet. www.army.mil runs off OS X Server because they got hacked running Windows NT. "Macs - For playing with pretty pictures and the newest photoshop plugins" So you're saying Windows can't handle Photoshop? ROFL. Have fun in your admin account another two years running Ad-aware and Norton.

My favorite feature of Windows is "Winrot," which is where the system actually slows down after six months, requiring a complete reinstall to get to normal speed again. No other OS has this innovative feature that Microsoft pioneered. Thank you, Microsoft.

"www.apple.com/switchtogayporn " Ho! Ho! Ho! I get it! I love the witty, homophobic humor on this web site.

"Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system" I cannot believe that people who get articles published could be so damn stupid. Here, I'll tell you what's wrong with the sentence: LINUS DID NOT CREATE AN OPERATING SYSTEM. He created a kernel, a very small, perhaps infinitesimal portion of a modern Unix-derivative OS installation. It lets the OS (GNU, not Linux) work with hardware. If Linus wanted to protect the Linux name from unwanted use, he should have adopted the name GNU/Linux to describe distributions a long time ago. He didn't; he called them Linux, which is incorrect. Now he wants to punish others for doing the same.

"Windows Exchange Server 2003" - that's a new product I haven't heard of before... " Well, visit this page: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx Wow! The big news: "Server 2003 Service Pack 2 is Coming!" Yeah. Seriously. They put an exclamation point on that. BWAHAHAHAHAHA

http://www.linux is just as money grubbing and DRM as the rest of them maybe more so.com

Window's winrot sure ain't as bad as Linux's kernel panic, XWindows freeze and alphaware quality.