The Linux Foundation has become a patent troll

rhabarba · 2Y

The Linux Foundation has become a patent troll

rhabarba · 2Y

Why does the Linux Foundation even have a trademark process for “segmentation fault”? According to the poster on Mastodon, these words were the whole design.

NaN · edit-2 2Y

You can look trademarks up. They don’t.

There is more to the story, even if it’s just some overzealous bot or contracted company.

HeartyBeast · 2Y

Segmentation fault is the name of the artwork.

The artwork itself might contain the Linux logo

@QuazarOmega@lemy.lol · edit-2 2Y

You mean Tux? That’s under a custom attribution license, with no noncommercial clause

roguetrick · 2Y

Just like champagne only comes from the champagne region of France, true segmentation fault only comes from a linux program shitting itself.

bluGill · 2Y

Linux is the imposter here. Segmentation fault refers to how the PDP-(I forget) hardware organized memory. It comes from the original unix implementation which linux has never had any part of.

HeartyBeast · 2Y

They aren’t satinf they have a trademark on the phrase ‘ segmentation fault’. They are saying the artwork called ‘segmentation fault’ contains a trademarked image/logo/whatever

squiblet · 2Y

What is this segmentation fault logo or image? I’m not familiar with anything like that and searching for it hasn’t helped.

@FiskFisk33@lemmy.one · 2Y

we don’t know, the post does not elaborate

@deur@feddit.nl · 2Y

x86 and x86_64 still have segment registers so it’s not exactly entirely archaic, but they’re not really relevant so that doesnt change what you said. I dont have the exact details on who implemented segmentation first, so I cant elaborate on that.

squiblet · 2Y

It doesn’t matter because trademark law is about usage and active protection of rights, not origination.

bluGill · 2Y

It does matter because projects like *BSD can prove continuous usage of the term. As such either the trademark is easy to break (it is common use), or it can only be a trademark in very specific contexts that are unlikely to apply.

squiblet · 2Y

Sure, what I was saying is that whether someone else created it in the 70s isn’t significant for trademark law. If multiple entities have been using it since then without claiming exclusivity would be significant.

Sonotsugipaa · 2Y

Aged like fine segmentation fault

@Synthuir@lemmy.ml · 2Y

—Lucy Liubot

@thesmokingman@programming.dev · 2Y

Doing a search on the USPTO shows no mark for that combination of words. Did the poster share the design? Because either there’s more to the story on their side or there’s more to the Linux Foundation side. For example, an overworked paralegal with no concept of what terms to include. Alternatively, someone being an asshole with a SLAPP suit. We need more information.

MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown · 2Y

They might not; that is just the title of the art. The art could have other infringing content.

rhabarba · 2Y

It did not.

@lily33@lemm.ee · edit-2 2Y

We need to see the actual artwork to know if it has something infringing. This link means little.

@Zatujit@reddthat.com · 2Y

Does the back include Linux logo or smth? Otherwise it makes no sense