by Dwight Johnson, Linux
Today
Thanks to Chris Hyun,
Randy Leganza and Choi
Jun-ho for contributing to this report.
The Korean Linux community was outraged when on August 20, 1999,
several Korean businesses selling Linux-related products got a
letter from the attorney of Yongtae Kwon claiming that they were
violating his registered trademark of the name “Linux”.
An examination showed that Kwon had applied for two “Linux”
trademarks on September 27, 1995 and was granted them both on May
22, 1997 and July 5, 1997.
Kwon’s letter, in part, claimed:
At present, I came to know the fact that you have
sold the books in “attached catalogue”, prohibited by law, and your
these opportunities are included in violating act against the
trade-marks in the laws of trade-mark…Regarding the specified products of “Linux”, no one has a
monopolistic and exclusive right except me in Korea.
On August, 24, 1999, several publishers, including Information
Publishing Group, responded by bringing a lawsuit against Kwon to
unavail him of the trademark. Information Publishing Group and
Youngjin Co. Ltd. are pursuing the suit directly and other
publishers are supporting them financially.
On August, 25, 1999, an officer of the Korean Industrial
Property Office announced that proving the fact that Linux was used
as an operating system in Korea in 1995 will be sufficient to
unavail the trademark.
He stated further that the reason this “Linux” trademark was
successfuly registered was:
- In 1996, the examiner didn’t know that “Linux” was one the name
of an existing operating system. - During the public response period of the application, there was
no objection from anyone.
More information here.
http://kldp.org/gnu/menstruieren.html
(Korean).
http://linux.sarang.net
(Korean).