[osflash] on using the word "Flash" in your projects...

[Justin Clift]

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Sho Kuwamoto wrote:
> Hi all. 
> 
> I'm not a lawyer, but here's my understanding.
> 
> We definitely want to court third party developers, and we know that having lots of Flash projects out there makes our ecosystem stronger. So please don't take this as an affront.
> 
> That having been said, my understanding of trademark law is that you have to defend your trademark consistently if you want to protect it later. This is different from patents and other forms of intellectual property, where you can pick and choose when you defend it.
> 
> Let's say that two years from now, Microsoft decides to create something called the Flash Player. If they can point to lots and lots of cases where we have let people use the word "Flash", then we lose the protection of our trademark.

So, as Macromedia hasn't (for several years now) enforced their
trademark as such, we're now in a position were there are many projects,
tools, websites, etc, using the name Flash.

Perhaps they've let the cat out of the bag, and should be viewed as
having lost the trademark from non-enforcement?  (By someone with more
money and lawyers than me!)

;->

+ Justin


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