Jon talks about recent happennings with securing the Linux® trademark in Australia.

In what we laughingly call the past, we discovered that Linux was not a registered trademark in Australia and such our legal options in the case of someone abusing it.

So, we set out on the road of securing the trademark. It’s a long process (we’ve also put in some applications for some of the names LA uses) and our legal dude (I think they call them lawyers now, but ‘legal dude’ sounds cool) Jeremy Malcolm has been great in sorting out the stuff you need to sort out.

So, the way the Linux® trademark works is that Linus owns it, but since he has little interest in having to do the legal footwork (something about prefering to hack and spend time with family – you know, things he’s good at) there’s an organisation called the Linux Mark Institute (LMI) to administer it.

So, we’re (LA) being the good guys and making sure we’ve got good legal ground to stand on in Australia – and we’ve gotten Jeremy to do what’s needed to secure the trademark – which is (basically) prove that the right person is going to own it and it’s a good thing to have.

Getting people to say that they respect and support the trademark (by having an appropriate license from LMI) puts us in a better legal position.

Of course, letters from lawyers can scare people – but don’t be scared, this is just warm and fuzzy things for the good of us all.

(Small, cute, furry creatures not included)