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

[John Crispin]

On 22/12/2016 04:45, Dave Taht wrote:
> Lede trademark...
> 
> Published for Opposition:December 20, 2016
> 
> sigh.
> 

*slap on the wrist or top posting*

the project is called lede-project and not lede for a reason ;)

	John

> 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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> 
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