Rasmus,

As both a SkySQL VP and a board member, could you answer one question:

What was the involvement (c.f. no involvement, passive notice, active agreement, approval, rejection, etc.) of the MariaDB Foundation and its board in the current/new uses of the MariaDB trademark: the MariaDB.com site and design itself, the phrase "MariaDB Enterprise", etc.?

Additionally, should not MariaDB.com say in its footer "2013 © SkySQL" not "2013 © MariaDB" since, by my understanding "MariaDB" is not itself some commercial entity? Otherwise you're essentially acting as "SkySQL d/b/a MariaDB" which is unnecessarily confusing and ambiguous as to the position/relationship of the MariaDB Foundation.

Regards,

Jeremy

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 12:34 AM, Rasmus Johansson <rasmus@mariadb.com> wrote:

Hi Jeremy,

You’re absolutely right that the trademark was owned by Monty Program
Ab. Now after SkySQL acquired Monty Program, the trademark ownership
has transferred to SkySQL Corporation Ab. Notice that this isn’t
updated in trademark registers yet. The acquisition was closed on
Monday this week and it was a prerequisite for taking matters such as
trademarks further.

The MariaDB Foundation and SkySQL are currently working on the
trademark issue to come up with a solution on what rights to the
trademark each entity should have. Expect to hear more about this in a
fairly near future.

MariaDB has from its beginning been a very community friendly project
and much of the success of MariaDB relies in that fact. SkySQL of
course respects that.

Best regards,
Rasmus

VP Engineering, SkySQL
Board member, MariaDB Foundation

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 1:27 AM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@google.com> wrote:
> While poking around on the various sites (discussed at length in previous
> threads) I was left wondering about the MariaDB trademark. I was under the
> impression this was going to be owned by and managed by the MariaDB
> Foundation. It seems like it was registered by Monty Program Ab though, and
> never transferred to or owned by MariaDB Foundation. So, after the
> acquisition it is now owned by SkySQL.
>
> The SkySQL site's "Trademarks" page definitively confirms this with the text
> «The "MariaDB" trademark is wholly owned by SkySQL Corporation Ab and is a
> registered trademark in ...».
>
> So, I am left wondering what happened? Was my original understanding
> incorrect, or was this never properly followed through? While I would hope
> SkySQL is a good community member and would not do anything bad with the
> trademark, this does defeat a lot of the original idea with the foundation,
> by my understanding, and leaves a single commercial entity in more or less
> full control of MariaDB's future.
>
> Can anyone provide some insight?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jeremy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~maria-discuss
> Post to     : maria-discuss@lists.launchpad.net
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~maria-discuss
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>