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

Python trademark at risk in Europe

pyfound.blogspot.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 168 posts

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#111

Post by alanctgardner2 »

martinced wrote: post #107

What about people would start using original and easy to Google names for languages and APIs / frameworks / etc.? (I know Python predates Google but still). No more three-letters acronyms: PHP, APL, RPG, PL/I (ok, there a slash in addition to the three-letters but still). No more names that refer to someone who existed (either first name or last name or surname) or a common word: Pascal, Logo, Java, Go, Racket, Haske…

I get what you mean, but making names up is torture in most communication channels. The best example I can think of is Hadoop. Even though it's mostly spelled like it sounds, I've never seen anyone remember it right off the bat. Python, as an english word, sticks in your mind with the correct spelling. Unless you see if spelled out, Hadoop is kind of a fuzzy, nonsense word.

I don't have any studies to cite, but that's my experience with technical and nontechnical people. Java is a easy to remember and usually not misheard, Hadoop is hard to remember initially. Don't even get me started on Sqoop.

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#112

Post by pvaldes »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #90
avar wrote: post #25

It's unclear from this whether or not Python would have to change the name of the programming language if they didn't get the trademark, or whether this UK company would just have the right to call their products "Python" too. Early in the article it says: "There is a company in the UK that is trying to trademark the use of the term "Python" for all software, services, servers... pretty much anything having to do wit…

That's not the way trademarks work. Trademarks cover one or more industries, so your snake is completely safe. In fact, if you wanted to make a car called the Python or a chair called the Python or just about anything else called the Python, you would be welcome to it (assuming somebody else hadn't trademarked that). Even in software, you could incorporate the word Python as long as it didn't cause confusion (for ins…

like this for example...

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lock-Adjustable-Camouflage-8418...

Probably those companies with products with Python in its name will be interested in this. You could contact them

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#114

Post by candeira »

VanL wrote: post #2

I (and probably several other) members of the board will be on this thread to answer any questions. Van Lindberg Chairman, Python Software Foundation Edit: I have been asked what sort of statements would be helpful. I can't tell you exactly what to say - it needs to be your statement, but we need to make it clear that when someone says "Python" in relation to software, or a "Python server," or with "Python experience…

I help run barrapunto.com, a Slasdhot clone in Spanish backed by a Spanish company. We have a Python topic that refers to the Python language. We lost some of our early content, but currently our first story on that topic is from October 2001:

http://softlibre.barrapunto.com/article.pl?sid=01/10/20/0982...

Using Archive.org, I can find a story about the release of Python 2.0 from October 2000:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001214042200/http://barrapunto....

This last one is shown on this front page with a different design:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001018174909/http://barrapunto....

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#116

Post by VanL »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #108

> They blew us off and responded by filing the community trademark application claiming the exclusive right to use "Python" for software, servers, and web services - everywhere in Europe. // I'm not a TM lawyer by a long shot but this looks like a knee-jerk response to an entirely frivolous claim. Python lacks distinctiveness in the category covering software because it describes a long standing computer language and…

They are claiming the image mark, but the image is the word "Python" with only minimal embellishment. Further, they have added broader rights in private conversation.

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#117

Post by astrodust »

belorn wrote: post #83
VanL wrote: post #2

I (and probably several other) members of the board will be on this thread to answer any questions. Van Lindberg Chairman, Python Software Foundation Edit: I have been asked what sort of statements would be helpful. I can't tell you exactly what to say - it needs to be your statement, but we need to make it clear that when someone says "Python" in relation to software, or a "Python server," or with "Python experience…

Would not Google search, Wikipedia and Stackoverflow statistic be of some worth to show what the dominant usage of the word python is in the realm of software?

This does need to be in relation to Python being used prior to the acquisition of python.co.uk, presumably, which means all of those are insufficient.

The exception is Google's USENET cache.

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#118

Post by briancurtin »

egor83 wrote: post #31
VanL wrote: post #2

I (and probably several other) members of the board will be on this thread to answer any questions. Van Lindberg Chairman, Python Software Foundation Edit: I have been asked what sort of statements would be helpful. I can't tell you exactly what to say - it needs to be your statement, but we need to make it clear that when someone says "Python" in relation to software, or a "Python server," or with "Python experience…

Is it possible to put a link to this post on Python news page? http://python.org/news/ I'm going to forward this to some people working with Python in Europe, and I guess a link to the homepage might look more credible that to a blog.

FYI, there is now a mention on the news list (also shown on the front page) which links to the blog post.

Re: Python trademark at risk in Europe

#119

Post by briancurtin »

nigma wrote: post #100
nonamegiven wrote: post #32

Europe seems to see Python as the name of a computer langauge. CERN uses Python. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cern+python They developed the PythonRoot package: http://alcaraz.home.cern.ch/alcaraz/PythonRoot/ It's probably of interest that this and many other Python packages have the word "Python" in the name of the package. I would hate to have to wonder whether PythonCoolPackage was for the Python language, or for int…

PyPy was funded by the European Union as a Specific Targeted Research Project between December 2004 and March 2007. http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.doc...

Yep, this is a part of our documentation for the case.
Post reply on HN