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

[Dave Taht]

Lede trademark...

Published for Opposition:December 20, 2016

sigh.

On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 7:36 PM, Val Kulkov <val.kulkov at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 21 December 2016 at 17:01, Florian Fainelli <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> 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
>
> - Val
>
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-- 
Dave Täht
Let's go make home routers and wifi faster! With better software!
http://blog.cerowrt.org