Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 93 posts

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#11

Post by 0xy »

oefrha wrote: post #6
djbusby wrote: post #2

This is why it is important to trademark names in your FOSS projects

Very few non-corporate FOSS projects would have the funds to file a trademark, especially an international one considering one can be infringed from anywhere around the world. And time spent on filing would be time not advancing the actual project, unless a lawyer is hired, which makes it even more expensive. Even fewer would have the resources to actually pursue legal action if the trademark is infringed upon. This…

It costs less than $2,500 to file trademarks in the US, EU and UK which is plenty of coverage. OBS has received hundreds of thousands in funding, from YouTube, Twitch and Facebook as well as smaller patrons.

Maybe $5,000 if you're talking about high-touch legal help or the trademarks are dicey.

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#12

Post by oefrha »

0xy wrote: post #11
oefrha wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few non-corporate FOSS projects would have the funds to file a trademark, especially an international one considering one can be infringed from anywhere around the world. And time spent on filing would be time not advancing the actual project, unless a lawyer is hired, which makes it even more expensive. Even fewer would have the resources to actually pursue legal action if the trademark is infringed upon. This…

It costs less than $2,500 to file trademarks in the US, EU and UK which is plenty of coverage. OBS has received hundreds of thousands in funding, from YouTube, Twitch and Facebook as well as smaller patrons. Maybe $5,000 if you're talking about high-touch legal help or the trademarks are dicey.

OBS is the #10 most popular project on Open Collective[1] (plus other donations), so yeah, it is one of the top-earning FOSS projects that can afford it.

[1] https://opencollective.com/discover

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#14

Post by charcircuit »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #13

Can someone explain what OBS is? And yeah, some rando tried to trademark "Linux" some years back, lol. After a fair amount of hassle it ended up getting transferred to Linus Torvalds, which I guess was the best solution.

OBS is software for producing and streaming live video content.

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#16

Post by erk__ »

oefrha wrote: post #12
0xy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs less than $2,500 to file trademarks in the US, EU and UK which is plenty of coverage. OBS has received hundreds of thousands in funding, from YouTube, Twitch and Facebook as well as smaller patrons. Maybe $5,000 if you're talking about high-touch legal help or the trademarks are dicey.

OBS is the #10 most popular project on Open Collective[1] (plus other donations), so yeah, it is one of the top-earning FOSS projects that can afford it. [1] https://opencollective.com/discover

Including $50,000 from the owners of Streamlabs, Logitech

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#17

Post by cpuguy83 »

0xy wrote: post #11
oefrha wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few non-corporate FOSS projects would have the funds to file a trademark, especially an international one considering one can be infringed from anywhere around the world. And time spent on filing would be time not advancing the actual project, unless a lawyer is hired, which makes it even more expensive. Even fewer would have the resources to actually pursue legal action if the trademark is infringed upon. This…

It costs less than $2,500 to file trademarks in the US, EU and UK which is plenty of coverage. OBS has received hundreds of thousands in funding, from YouTube, Twitch and Facebook as well as smaller patrons. Maybe $5,000 if you're talking about high-touch legal help or the trademarks are dicey.

It costs significantly more to defend your trademark. Registering your trademark is pointless if you can't also defend it.

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#18

Post by zeeZ »

charcircuit wrote: post #14
throwaway81523 wrote: post #13

Can someone explain what OBS is? And yeah, some rando tried to trademark "Linux" some years back, lol. After a fair amount of hassle it ended up getting transferred to Linus Torvalds, which I guess was the best solution.

OBS is software for producing and streaming live video content.

While that is its main use, it's also great for recorded video content.

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#19

Post by Warchamp7 »

erk__ wrote: post #16
oefrha wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OBS is the #10 most popular project on Open Collective[1] (plus other donations), so yeah, it is one of the top-earning FOSS projects that can afford it. [1] https://opencollective.com/discover

Including $50,000 from the owners of Streamlabs, Logitech

For what it's worth, Logitech made that contribution well before they bought Streamlabs

Re: The OBS project has accused Streamlabs of copying their name and trademark

#20

Post by rolandog »

0xy wrote: post #11
oefrha wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few non-corporate FOSS projects would have the funds to file a trademark, especially an international one considering one can be infringed from anywhere around the world. And time spent on filing would be time not advancing the actual project, unless a lawyer is hired, which makes it even more expensive. Even fewer would have the resources to actually pursue legal action if the trademark is infringed upon. This…

It costs less than $2,500 to file trademarks in the US, EU and UK which is plenty of coverage. OBS has received hundreds of thousands in funding, from YouTube, Twitch and Facebook as well as smaller patrons. Maybe $5,000 if you're talking about high-touch legal help or the trademarks are dicey.

$2,500 would be about the average monthly gross income of a person earning $15/hr. And in terms of expendable income, that's an order of magnitude away of what people can shell out.
Post reply on HN