51–60 of 93 posts
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.
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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
That's the Open(SUSE) Build System, right? ;)
This is why it is important to trademark names in your FOSS projects
I would rather put the blame on Streamlabs for using the name without permission than on OBS for not having registered a trademark.
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Doesn't it at least protect you from someone else registering it and then suing you?
Not really. Registering, yes, but you can sue anybody at any time. You might lose but it doesn't prevent you from suing. If you hold a trademark you are obligated to defend it. If you don't others can void it.
This is enough of a problem that anti-SLAPP laws have been passed in several jurisdictions. Those laws only go so far, though (and you still need to mount a defence of some description)
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Including $50,000 from the owners of Streamlabs, Logitech
For what it's worth, Logitech made that contribution well before they bought Streamlabs
https://trademarks.justia.com/882/96/streamlabs-88296466.htm...
In response someone likely affiliated with OBS filed their own trademark, though that was abandoned:
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…
Trademarks don't need to be registered and many trademarks simply exist through active use.
However, your second paragraph is the key one. While trademarks don't need to be registered (and, in any case, trademark registrations are mostly on a country by country basis) it's pretty much on you to spend the money to defend your trademark if you want to do so. No one's going to do it for you.
This is why it is important to trademark names in your FOSS projects
1: https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/united-states-strong-ri...