[asterisk-users] Zaptel project being renamed to DAHDI

[Steve Totaro]

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 4:36 PM, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 01, 2008 at 10:35:44PM -0400, Steve Totaro wrote:
>> 5.  "We are not doing _anything_ that will prohibit other hardware
>> vendors for making compatible drivers."
>>
>>  I am sure that is true but what happens when they use the trademarked
>> term DAHDI?  AdWords getting banned, cease and desist letters for
>> trademark infringement for being "DAHDI" compatible.  We have seen it
>> before with Asterisk as I stated before, it is just a matter of time
>> before it gets slipped in more slowly so instead of the whole
>> community enraged, a small minority will be affected one at a time.
>
> Absolutely nothing.
>
> No trademark owner has any legal right of any sort to control the
> descriptive or editorial use of a trademarked name by other parties,
> absent contractual agreement.
>
> *They* have to say Kleenex-brand facial tissues, and so does their ad
> agency, but *we* don't, and they can't change it.
>
> They can only go after you for it if you use the mark in an infringing
> fashion.
>
>        http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm
>        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement
>        http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/infringe.html
>
> "DAHDI-compatible" is a perfectly serviceable thing for a hardware
> manufacturer to call a card or driver.  And if Digium puts that string
> into the actual *interface* (IE: you have to use that string to tag
> calls to their ABI), then they can't have lawyers yell at you for that
> either.
>
> IANAL, but I've played one on the net for 25 years.
>
> Trademark law, happily, is *much* more clear-cut than copyright law.
>
> Cheers,
> -- jra
> --
> Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
> Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
> Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com                     '87 e24
> St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274
>
>             Those who cast the vote decide nothing.
>             Those who count the vote decide everything.
>               -- (Joseph Stalin)
>

Ok so you addressed half of my point....

How about Google AdWords?  Do you think they will get in the middle of
a legal battle or just pull the ads?  Will you have to sign up for the
Digium Foodchain to use DAHDI in your ad?

The bottom line is to get (D)AHDI in there, Digium, owning the
trademark, and control of it.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro