Red Hat 7.2 B2 comments (rant)

K. Ari Krupnikov konstantin.krupnikov at sun.com
Tue Sep 3 11:40:53 EDT 2002


"Derek D. Martin" <ddm at pizzashack.org> writes:

> BTW, IANAL, but I think if you looked into it, you'd find that his
> request is trademark infringement; i.e. illegal.  It just so happens
> that Linus doesn't care.

Err, IANALE, but isn't it infringement to use another's trademark in
your product's name? Like Red Hat *Linux*? A "Red Hat Unix" or "Red
Hat Motif" are sure to generate some interesting responses from The
Open Group. The license that comes with the Linux kernel (GPL with
exceptions) allows you to redistribute the code or its derivatives;
there is nothing in it to allow the use of a trademark owned by the
original author to promote your product. So if you are right, every
single distribution that has "Linux" in its name is infringing as it
is.

Ari.




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