maria-discuss team mailing list archive

[Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rasmus,

As both a SkySQL VP and a board member, could you answer one question:

What was the involvement (c.f. no involvement, passive notice, active
agreement, approval, rejection, etc.) of the MariaDB Foundation and its
board in the current/new uses of the MariaDB trademark: the MariaDB.com
site and design itself, the phrase "MariaDB Enterprise", etc.?

Additionally, should not MariaDB.com say in its footer "2013 © SkySQL" not
"2013 © MariaDB" since, by my understanding "MariaDB" is not itself some
commercial entity? Otherwise you're essentially acting as "SkySQL d/b/a
MariaDB" which is unnecessarily confusing and ambiguous as to the
position/relationship of the MariaDB Foundation.

Regards,

Jeremy


On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 12:34 AM, Rasmus Johansson <rasmus@xxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Hi Jeremy,
>
> You’re absolutely right that the trademark was owned by Monty Program
> Ab. Now after SkySQL acquired Monty Program, the trademark ownership
> has transferred to SkySQL Corporation Ab. Notice that this isn’t
> updated in trademark registers yet. The acquisition was closed on
> Monday this week and it was a prerequisite for taking matters such as
> trademarks further.
>
> The MariaDB Foundation and SkySQL are currently working on the
> trademark issue to come up with a solution on what rights to the
> trademark each entity should have. Expect to hear more about this in a
> fairly near future.
>
> MariaDB has from its beginning been a very community friendly project
> and much of the success of MariaDB relies in that fact. SkySQL of
> course respects that.
>
> Best regards,
> Rasmus
>
> VP Engineering, SkySQL
> Board member, MariaDB Foundation
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 1:27 AM, Jeremy Cole <jeremycole@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > While poking around on the various sites (discussed at length in previous
> > threads) I was left wondering about the MariaDB trademark. I was under
> the
> > impression this was going to be owned by and managed by the MariaDB
> > Foundation. It seems like it was registered by Monty Program Ab though,
> and
> > never transferred to or owned by MariaDB Foundation. So, after the
> > acquisition it is now owned by SkySQL.
> >
> > The SkySQL site's "Trademarks" page definitively confirms this with the
> text
> > «The "MariaDB" trademark is wholly owned by SkySQL Corporation Ab and is
> a
> > registered trademark in ...».
> >
> > So, I am left wondering what happened? Was my original understanding
> > incorrect, or was this never properly followed through? While I would
> hope
> > SkySQL is a good community member and would not do anything bad with the
> > trademark, this does defeat a lot of the original idea with the
> foundation,
> > by my understanding, and leaves a single commercial entity in more or
> less
> > full control of MariaDB's future.
> >
> > Can anyone provide some insight?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jeremy
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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