[asterisk-biz] So Digium bought Sokol/Astricon

[Jared Smith]

On Tue, 2007-07-17 at 20:33 -0400, Andrew Joakimsen wrote:
> They were probably mad of the "Astri...." name... You know how Digium
> can be when it comes to the use of their names such as Asterisk.

Being one of the former employees of Sokol & Associates, I may have a
little more insight than most into this.  (I don't pretend to know
everything involved, as I wasn't involved in the discussions about
Digium acquiring us.)

As far as I know, Digium never had any problem with the AstriCon name
for the conference.[1]  I think they simply saw this as an opportunity
to augment both their marketing and training departments through both
the AstriCon conference and the Asterisk training classes, as well as
hire some pretty big names in the Asterisk community.  (I'm not saying
that to toot my own horn in any degree.)  I think above all it was just 
good fit.

In short, I think you're safe to take off your tinfoil hats :-)

Now, as part of my new role at Digium, it's my job to help keep Digium
focused on the community and making sure that the needs of the community
are being met, as well as representing Digium back to the community.  If
you have questions or concerns about Digium as a company or with Digium
products or services, please let me know and I'll pass those along, and
try to make sure you get a response.

-- 
Jared Smith
Community Relations Manager
Digium, Inc.

[1] I'm no lawyer (and I don't play one on TV), but my limited
understanding of trademark law is that you're required to defend your
trademark or you lose it, so I can completely understand why Digium
defends the Asterisk trademark.