[LEDE-DEV] [OpenWrt-Devel] Talks between OpenWrt and LEDE

[Florian Fainelli]

On 12/21/2016 07:30 PM, Val Kulkov wrote:
> 
> On 21 December 2016 at 17:01, Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli at gmail.com
> <mailto:f.fainelli at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     On 12/21/2016 01:46 PM, Alberto Bursi wrote:
>     > On 12/21/2016 09:42 PM, Dave Taht wrote:
>     >> On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 12:29 PM, David Lang <david at lang.hm
>     <mailto:david at lang.hm>> wrote:
>     >>> On Wed, 21 Dec 2016, Kathy Giori wrote:
>     >>>
>     >>>> From a PR perspective, I strongly suggest keeping the term
>     OpenWrt as
>     >>>> part of the branding of the project moving forward. It can just be
>     >>>> cosmetic (web site, etc.) but the name has so much history, and
>     >>>> positive connotation, that you don't want to lose that brand
>     attached
>     >>>> to the development moving forward.
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> I agree, I think this is an obvious choice to make. OpenWRT has
>     a lot of
>     >>> name recognition, it would be foolish to throw that away.
>     >>
>     >> Just to take the other side for rhetorical purposes, a purpose of a
>     >> re-branding exercise is to show a change in the "product" or
>     >> organisation behind it. OpenWrt is widely known... as a bleeding
>     edge,
>     >> sometimes unstable, somewhat hard to use 3rd party firmware. DD-Wrt
>     >> and Tomato get a lot more press for some reason. So do things like
>     >> Yocto. If lede were to succeed in meeting its other goals,
>     coherently,
>     >> preserving "lede" and moving forward as a separate project does make
>     >> sense.
>     >>
>     >
>     > +1 for this. OpenWRT brand isn't 100% positive recognition, it has
>     some
>     > downsides too. Many people (I know and/or have seen around the
>     internet)
>     > were discouraged from contributing or using it due to the
>     weaknesses of
>     > OpenWRT project.
>     >
>     > I like more the LEDE branding for this reason. It conveys that it is
>     > significantly different, possibly for the better, from OpenWRT
>     project.
>     >
>     > But I don't have enough information to say for sure what is the better
>     > brand to keep, so this is just my opinion.
> 
>     Keeping or not the OpenWrt, or LEDE name is obviously part of the things
>     that need to be agreed upon before proceeding with a merger. If not
>     about the "brand", "recognition" or other more subjective criteria,
>     OpenWrt is a trademark, so that needs to be factored in for the
>     decision, in particular if there is any legal activity going on.
> 
> 
> A trademark exists to protect its owner's rights. The "OpenWRT"
> trademark is owned by SPI:
> http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:r3y94m.2.1
> 
> If there is no unauthorised use of a trademark, there is no legal issue.
> In other words, if the merged project continues as "LEDE", there is no
> legal issue in respect of the "OpenWRT" trademark.
> 
> SPI also has the right to oppose registration or use of a trademark that
> appears confusingly similar to "OpenWRT". This seems to be a purely
> hypothetical situation, but here it is: if OpenWRT and LEDE do not merge
> and for some reason the LEDE folks decide to rename LEDE to FreeWRT or
> alike, SPI may have a legal claim against the use of the "FreeWRT"
> trademark that some people may see as confusingly similar to OpenWRT.
> 
> My main objection to "LEDE" is that I have no idea how to pronounce this
> name correctly. I suspect that many English speakers will find
> themselves equally confused about how to pronounce "LEDE". Is it like in
> "LEAD the way", or like in "LEAD, a heavy metal", or like "LE DE"? While
> the core LEDE community might know how to pronounce the name correctly,
> try explaining it to the world outside. For this reason, "OpenWRT" is a
> better choice imho.
> 
> However, I also agree with Dave, Alberto and Stefan that a name change
> may be a really smart way to communicate the fresh start of the project,
> a reboot, especially if the new name rides on the popularity of
> "OpenWRT". It could be for example "OpenLD" (LD for Linux Device) or
> "LibreWRT". Of course this is all conditional on the merge of OpenWRT
> and LEDE. If the projects do not merge, the OpenWRT folks and SPI may
> have a claim against the use of OpenLD or LibreWRT or alike.
> 
> By the way, there is a pending application at the USPTO for the
> registration of "LEDE" trademark for use in some software or websites:
> http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:8zgvq2.8.1

The point was that OpenWrt is already registered and managed by SPI, so
we may as well keep using it, and that is just what I meant to say here,
nothing more.
-- 
Florian