michiguel wrote:A word cannot be copyrighted, but trademarked.
Good to know. So, has Stockfish ever been announced as a trademark? That is, displayed with at superscript TM after it, or whatever else might work?
michiguel wrote:Since a trademark serves the purpose not to confuse the consumer about the origin of the product, even if Stockfish was a registered trademark, it does not prevent someone to use Stockfish to call stockfish. It would prevent them to call another engine with the name "Stockfish".
Really? I was thinking it showed it came with the authorization of the trademark owner. The law is written primarily for commercial interests and I'm not sure how it applies to free software.
That's not the way it works. It generally requires an attorney, because the first step is to verify that it is not presently already registered as a trademark. A friend and myself went thru this process back in the early 80's for a software system we wrote. We had a logo designed, then trademarked.
You automatically inherit the copyright for anything you write, but for trademarks it is very similar to the patent process. It is much harder to obtain a trademark for a word like "Stockfish" than for a word + some sort of logo, since the logo + the word is a pretty unique combination. It is not free, by the way. So far as I know, this is a country-by-country process, so you get to do it many times if you are interested in a trademark that is protected world-wide.
hgm wrote:
But even then, don't really understand the fuss. Why would it bother you if someone else makes money on something you intended to give away for free anyway?
If someone else creates so much synergy between your free product and his commercial one that people are willing to pay him for it... This only makes your own product more valuable.
Someone made a product but didnt want to sell it nor to use it in Championships. Who would want to do that? Someone who must hide something. If he remains "for free" he's out of danger. That's all. -
-Popper and Lakatos are good but I'm stuck on Leibowitz
hgm wrote:
But even then, don't really understand the fuss. Why would it bother you if someone else makes money on something you intended to give away for free anyway?
If someone else creates so much synergy between your free product and his commercial one that people are willing to pay him for it... This only makes your own product more valuable.
Someone made a product but didnt want to sell it nor to use it in Championships. Who would want to do that? Someone who must hide something. If he remains "for free" he's out of danger. That's all. -
The relationship to the the so called Rybka affair is so not adequate....
1-0 regards,
Dr.D
_No one can hit as hard as life.But it ain’t about how hard you can hit.It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.How much you can take and keep moving forward….
