Oz Linux trademark bid fails
p2p news / p2pnet:- An attempt to register ‘Linux’ as a trademark in Australia has failed.
“The regulator, Intellectual Property Australia, turned down the application because the word ‘Linux’ was not distinctive enough to be trademarked,” says ZDNet Australia.
In an August 31 letter to Torvalds’ lawyer, Intellectual Property Australia official Andrew Paul Lowe said, "For your client’s trademark to be registerable under the Trade Marks Act, it must have sufficient ‘inherent adaptation to distinguish in the marketplace’,” states the story
"In other words, it cannot be a term that other traders with similar goods and services would need to use in the ordinary course of trade."
Wikipedia and Google were used to back the claim, “but IP Australia dismissed the examples,” says ZDNet. "The entry from the Wikipedia encyclopaedia indicates ‘Linux is a computer operating system and its kernel’ … demonstrating generic use rather than trademark use.
“Additionally, the Google searches provided simply show that the word Linux is a frequently used term on the Internet, and do not demonstrate trademark usage.”
However, as Linux Australia president Jonathan Oxer pointed out, it may be a dark cloud with a silver lining.
"My understanding is that if Linux Australia can’t register that [Linux] as a trademark, then nobody else could either,” ZDNet has him saying.
"Our goal was to make sure the name is used in a reasonable way. If it’s not possible [for anyone else] to register it as a trademark, then that has to some extent been achieved.”
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See:-
ZDNet Australia – Linux trademark bid rejected, September 16, 2005
