[nycbug-talk] BSD trademark

[Jan Schaumann]

Dru <dlavigne6 at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> 
> I was googling for "BSD Success Stories" and the 10th hit was this:
> 
> http://www.bsdsoftlink.com/success/successstories.htm
> 
> Surprised, I looked up the BSD trademark:
> 
> http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
> 
> BSD is result 14; BSD Softlink is results 9-12. (on a side note, I hadn't 
> realized UUnet had taken over the registration)
> 
> Is this okay? If not, who do I talk to?

I don't see why they would not be ok.  The term ``Berkeley Software
Distribution'' first appeared, I believe, around 1977 or so.  It was
then shortened to ``XXBSD'' (with XX being a number).  Any subsequent
``products'' so to speak have always been ``SomethingBSD'', not ``BSD''.

The BSD you cite has a last listed owner of WindRiver Systems, which
should sound familiar.  I think they'd have a valid claim to register
the trademark ``BSD'' based on their first commercial use in 1991, two
years before NetBSD was first released (which was the first of the three
main BSDs).

BSD Softlink registered ``BSD Softlink'' (and others), which also
doesn't seem to conflict or confuse other trademarks.

But then again, what the hell do I know about these things... ;-)

-Jan

-- 
chown -R us:enemy your_base
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