On the first hand again, they've done their job if you get a ruling that says the names are different, because they will not have failed to defend their trademark. On the other hand, if you were using the name 2 years ago without permission and they didn't bully you, you should be able to win just by saying that they didn't bully you two years ago they failed for two years to defend their trademark (nevermind that they didn't have it at the time), so they lose. As far as I can tell, if they end up in a real trademark dispute, they lose if the other people can produce anyone they didn't bully. The way trademark law works, they have to bully everyone who uses their name to refer to something else, even if the name is only slightly related. The question is, do the 40,000+ gaim users out there believe strongly enough that the defense of the "gaim" name is an important battle to fight. There is always a balance tha requires picking and choosing the battles so important that you are willing fight, and those that you choose do not wish to spend resources defending. Unfortunately, in the legal world, it's not just sufficient to be right, you have to have the finances, determination and other resources to fight the battle.
If anyone out there is a lawyer, and is willing to take on this project to support these projects, please contact us by sending e-mail to We have a lawyer who is willing to do the requisit trademark research and send a letter for $500, so if you feel strongly enough that you are willing to contribute money to the project, please contact us and let us know that too. We either will have to have some legal defense for gaim and the other projects, or will be obliged to change names. We are nearly out of options at this point, however, for the gaim project. Unlike patents, it is sometimes permissible, however, to pursue a trademark since "first commercial use."
#Markster con promo code license#
Since AOL has been aware of our name for over two years and has not expressed any concern at the use of "aim" in the name of the product even while expressing concern over their AOL trademark and logo, they may have implicitly given us license to use it."gaim" and others are not confusingly similar to "aim.".We have consulted with an attorney who believes we stand on a strong foot for the following reasons:
Similar notices have been sent to the owners of the "AIMY," "KAIM," "wmGAIM," "TAIM," "phpaim," "blaim," "libfaim," "jaim," "eaim," and "maim" projects. We have until Jto prepare a response to their charges. Now, in 2001, the same firm has sent us notice requiring that we change the name of the product (that they clearly have known for almost 2 years) because they believe GAIM's name to be confusingly similar to the AIM trademark that they applied for in 2000, almost two years after gaim was released. In July of 1999, I received a letter from AOL's Legal Representation requesting that we remove their AOL trademark and logo from our web site and product name, which we promptly did. We even receive numerous requests to port it to windows, because people like it more than the native AIM client in windows.
#Markster con promo code software#
From its humble beginnings as a two-week long project I started to teach myself GTK programming, to today where it is included in virtually ever Linux distribution, FreeBSD, and others, it has shown how even highly non-technical software can benefit from the Open Source model. GAIM is one of the best examples of Open Source software in action, because even though I have not personally coded on it in years, momentum as continued through multiple maintainers to make it one of the best instant messaging programs available. In 1998, I wrote a program called GAIM which provided Linux users with a way to participate in AOL's Instant Messenger (tm) service. Left over money or all of it if we can't get enough to payįor the letter will be refunded as much as possible through paypal." If you're interested in helping the GAIM authors in this legal fight, Mark writes: "We've set up an account on paypal (" forĬontributions. Russell Balch of Akridge & Balch will be representing the GAIM project Does anyone believe that the two are "confusingly similar"? It reminds me of Parker Brothers objecting to - is the Air Force next? Update: 06/25 10:53 PM by T: Trouble is that (among other things) AIM wasn't registered as a trademark when GAIM appeared. Mark Spencer, author of the well-known GAIM instant messaging client, wrote the following account of how large, lawyer-laden AOL is dealing with software projects with names similar to its AIM service.
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