Groklaw: The Linux® Trademark–Tempest in a Teapot

“I got email on this and I see mucho anguish on Slashdot. Why,
oh why, some wonder, would lawyers be sending out letters in
Australia, asking folks using the mark LINUX to formally license
the mark? And *pay* for it? What is this? A violation of the spirit
of openness? Doesn’t the GPL mean you can do whatever you like with
the name? Isn’t Linus’ policy that people can pretty much use the
Linux name as long as they are decent about it?

“First, it’s coming ultimately from Linus. There is a web site
you can visit to verify that policing the mark has been given to
the Linux Mark Institute by Linus, and the page is hosted by
OSDL…”

Complete
Story