German lawyer demands Torvalds drop Linux name

[~*McoreD*~]

A REPORT IN a German magazine said that a lawyer has asked Linus Torvalds to drop the use of the brand name Linux.
The report, in c't magazine, said that Baron Gunther Freiherr von Gravenreuth has demanded that the brand name be dropped because under German laws trademarks expire in Germany.

According to him, the trademark was registered in Germany on the 15th of February 1995, so the trademark is now out of date.

The report said that von Gravenreuth did not question Torvald's contribution to software development, but questioned whether the trademark was categorised under the right division of the trade mark law.

The magazine said that the lawyer is still waiting for a response from Torvalds and his lawyers.

You might think this an April Fools joke. But it's the 4th of April here and in Germany right now.

* WE'VE HEARD from the Baron before. Last year he represented Crayon GmBH against SuSE, and the probbo then was that the Linux' firm included a program called Krayon. The Baron got a court oder to stop SuSE from shipping it.

* UPDATE And apparently the Baron also represented a firm called Symicron which had a trademark on the word Explorer. He successfully sued several parties, even -- it is alleged, The Vole itself, which paid out a cool 45,000 Euros to have him leave them alone.

News Source

[~*McoreD*~]

this is really stupid. customers are so much used to the name "Linux". i think this will have a negative impact in distribution of Linux. sycho:

[unicorn]

Lol.
Let's all hope this take time and get some headlines. If so people in Germany who don't know anything about Linux will learn somewhat, a lot of free ads for the open source community!

And then the other thought: Are Germans supposed to stop call Linux Linux while the rest of the world, magazines, news and on the Net always talk about Linux and nothin else? That sounds kinda stupid. This might go either direction and I don't know much about German copyright/trademark laws. In many countries an old wellknown name can't be stolen by others, no matter it is registered or not.