[Maria-discuss] The MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB trademark?
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<http://www.skysql.com/about/legal/trademarks>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
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
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The MariaDB Foundation also holds the trademark of the MariaDB server and owns mariadb.org. This ensures that the official MariaDB development
What does this claim mean from https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-foundation? Is it incorrect or is there a difference between the trademarks for MariaDB and the MariaDB server? tree<https://code.launchpad.net/maria> will always be open for the MariaDB developer community.
The structure of the MariaDB Foundation underpins everything we do. No one
From https://mariadb.org/foundation how are these goals to be achieved given the trademark and documentation ownership (via mariadb.com/kb)? Note the claims about that one company won't control it. person or company drives priorities, code, or shapes community. The MariaDB Foundation uses technical and legal means to guarantee the technology used by the world's largest database community will continue to be free in every sense.
This last one should be easy to fix. The "Purchase Developer Support" link on the front page for mariadb.org ends up at https://www.skysql.com/about/contact. Will others get a link there? 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
While poking around on the various sites (discussed at length in previous threads) I was left wondering about the MariaDB trademark. I was under
On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 1:27 AM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@google.com> wrote: 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
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-- Mark Callaghan mdcallag@gmail.com
Hi Mark, On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 4:18 PM, MARK CALLAGHAN <mdcallag@gmail.com> wrote:
What does this claim mean from https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-foundation? Is it incorrect or is there a difference between the trademarks for MariaDB and the MariaDB server?
The MariaDB Foundation also holds the trademark of the MariaDB server and owns mariadb.org. This ensures that the official MariaDB development tree will always be open for the MariaDB developer community.
There has been a discussion on whether the main MariaDB project, https://launchpad.net/maria, should be referred to as MariaDB Server to make it clearer what is being referred to.
From https://mariadb.org/foundation how are these goals to be achieved given the trademark and documentation ownership (via mariadb.com/kb)? Note the claims about that one company won't control it.
The structure of the MariaDB Foundation underpins everything we do. No one person or company drives priorities, code, or shapes community. The MariaDB Foundation uses technical and legal means to guarantee the technology used by the world's largest database community will continue to be free in every sense.
As mentioned in my previous email the trademark issues are still being worked on and hopefully we’ll find a solution that satisfies all parties as good as possible.
This last one should be easy to fix. The "Purchase Developer Support" link on the front page for mariadb.org ends up at https://www.skysql.com/about/contact. Will others get a link there?
The Developer Support was a Monty Program offering that pointed to a Monty Program web site. Apparently during the consolidation of the web sites this has now been redirected to SkySQL. Thanks for pointing out. I will take this back to the Foundation. Rasmus
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
While poking around on the various sites (discussed at length in previous threads) I was left wondering about the MariaDB trademark. I was under
On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 1:27 AM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@google.com> wrote: 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
To be clear, I meant "As both a SkySQL VP and a _MariaDB Foundation_ board member" -- I have no idea if you're also on the board of SkySQL but it wouldn't be relevant here (and don't want others reading this to misconstrue). Regards, Jeremy On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 10:23 AM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@google.com> wrote:
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
While poking around on the various sites (discussed at length in
threads) I was left wondering about the MariaDB trademark. I was under
On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 1:27 AM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@google.com> wrote: previous 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
Hi Jeremy, On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 8:23 PM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@google.com> wrote:
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.?
The Foundation has been informed up front, but I want to re-iterate that this is work in progress and that there will be more news coming around the topics in a fairly near future.
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.
Yes, it should be copyrighted SkySQL. Thanks for noticing! It will be corrected. BR, Rasmus
participants (3)
-
Jeremy Cole -
MARK CALLAGHAN -
Rasmus Johansson