Hmm Is the coreboot name copyrighted?

[Joseph Smith]

Looks like ther is another coreboot out there in Japan...

http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2009/041400.html

[Robinson Tryon]

On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 9:18 PM, Joseph Smith  wrote:
> Looks like ther is another coreboot out there in Japan...
>
> http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2009/041400.html

It looks like the NTT Data company made an announcement in 2007 about
their "CoreBoot" thin client:

http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2007/062500.html

"CoreBootTM is a network boot thin client developed by NTT DATA
Corporation with the aim of preventing information leaks, reducing
administration costs, and achieving high performance. Designed as a
diskless PC to meet the needs for information security and efficient
terminal administration..."

"LinuxBIOS" was rebranded "coreboot" at the very beginning of 2008:

http://coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2008-January/029133.html

"Welcome to coreboot!

It's been 10 years (in octal anyway!) since the first successful LinuxBIOS boot.
[...]
As a result, starting last year, we decided to look at a new name. We
had lots of
candidates, and discussed the name with many companies. In the end, the name
that seemed to stick was "coreboot". It makes a lot of sense: the code we are
working on is the "core boot code".

So, starting this year, the 10th (base 8!) anniversary of the first
LinuxBIOS boot,
we are transitioning to the name coreboot. As you can see from the above,
coreboot can support all kinds of software, still including Linux."

[Joseph Smith]

On Sat, 30 May 2009 23:25:32 -0400, Robinson Tryon
 wrote:
> On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 9:18 PM, Joseph Smith

wrote:
> > Looks like ther is another coreboot out there in Japan...
> >
> > http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2009/041400.html
>
> It looks like the NTT Data company made an announcement in 2007 about
> their "CoreBoot" thin client:
>
> http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2007/062500.html
>
> "CoreBootTM is a network boot thin client developed by NTT DATA
> Corporation with the aim of preventing information leaks, reducing
> administration costs, and achieving high performance. Designed as a
> diskless PC to meet the needs for information security and efficient
> terminal administration..."
>
> "LinuxBIOS" was rebranded "coreboot" at the very beginning of 2008:
>
> http://coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2008-January/029133.html
>
> "Welcome to coreboot!
>
> It's been 10 years (in octal anyway!) since the first successful

LinuxBIOS
> boot.
> [...]
> As a result, starting last year, we decided to look at a new name. We
> had lots of
> candidates, and discussed the name with many companies. In the end, the
> name
> that seemed to stick was "coreboot". It makes a lot of sense: the code we
> are
> working on is the "core boot code".
>
> So, starting this year, the 10th (base 8!) anniversary of the first
> LinuxBIOS boot,
> we are transitioning to the name coreboot. As you can see from the above,
> coreboot can support all kinds of software, still including Linux."

Well that is not good news....

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 31.05.2009 07:21, Joseph Smith wrote:
> On Sat, 30 May 2009 23:25:32 -0400, Robinson Tryon
>  wrote:
> > It looks like the NTT Data company made an announcement in 2007 about
> > their "CoreBoot" thin client:
> >
> > http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2007/062500.html
> >
> > "LinuxBIOS" was rebranded "coreboot" at the very beginning of 2008:
>
> Well that is not good news....

Fortunately, coreboot is a registered trademark of coresystems (Stefan's
company) since 2007. The LinuxBIOS->coreboot name change was made long
after the trademark had been registered, so I think we're safe.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Robinson Tryon]

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 5:53 AM, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
 wrote:
> On 31.05.2009 07:21, Joseph Smith wrote:
> > On Sat, 30 May 2009 23:25:32 -0400, Robinson Tryon
> >  wrote:
> > > It looks like the NTT Data company made an announcement in 2007 about
> > > their "CoreBoot" thin client:
> > >
> > > http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2007/062500.html
> > >
> > > "LinuxBIOS" was rebranded "coreboot" at the very beginning of 2008:
> >
> > Well that is not good news....
>
> Fortunately, coreboot is a registered trademark of coresystems (Stefan's
> company) since 2007. The LinuxBIOS->coreboot name change was made long
> after the trademark had been registered, so I think we're safe.

Oh, okay, good. I tried to find out when NTT first mentioned their
products, and the earliest date I can find NTT CoreBoot mentioned is
June 25th, 2007:
http://www.nttdata.co.jp/en/media/2007/062500.html
http://www2.rbbtoday.com/news/20070625/42961.html

Coresystems GmbH filed for registration of "coreboot" with the USPTO
on September 20, 2007:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6tn175.2.1

I'm not a lawyer or anything, so I don't really know about how
who-did-what-on-which-date matters. I assume as long as people don't
confuse the two products, then everything is fine.

--R

[Stefan Reinauer]

Some clarification concerning the trademarks for 'coreboot®':

coresystems GmbH owns trademarks for 'coreboot®' in Germany, the US and
Taiwan, not for Japan. Coresystems never had business contacts relating
to coreboot® with Japanese people/companies so we had no problems so far.
It does not matter if people really confuse a thin client and a firmware
project. A potential violation would solely depend on the _classes_ and
countries a trademark is registered in.

Best regards,
Stefan

[ron minnich]

Just remember, there was a VAX vacuum cleaner and a VAX computer.

The vaccuum cleaner had this slogan: "Nothing sucks like a VAX"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolux

ron