[asterisk-dev] [Code Review] Remove chan_usbradio and app_rpt.

[Tilghman Lesher]

On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 2:18 PM, Steve Totaro wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 2:38 PM, Tilghman Lesher wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 1:16 PM, Steve Totaro wrote:
>> > http://business.zibb.com/trademark/zaptel/29737279
>> >
>> > Filing Date:1999
>> >
>> > Zaptel used by Jim Dixon common law trademark with interstate commerce
>> > was
>> > at the latest 1999 and probably earlier.  I cannot find the original BSD
>> > driver for the first Tormenta card, but that was the start of the Zaptel
>> > Telephony Project.  If it was before the federal filing date, then they
>> > had
>> > no grounds for anything laying claim.
>>
>> No.  Timeline matters for copyright law.  This is trademark law.  It
>> is completely different.
>
> Um wrong.  Pretty clear
> cut http://www.dailyblogtips.com/qa-how-does-trademark-law-work/
>
> I could post the actual laws, but this is much more simple for the layman.

Clearly, you need to re-read it yourself.  The link says it does not
matter who registers first, only who starts using it first.  You've
done the research, apparently, to figure out when Zaptel Corporation
(calling cards) registered their mark, but you haven't done the
research to say when they first started using the mark.  Digium has
paid staff attorneys, and if they made the determination that it was
not worth pursuing, it's a pretty safe bet that Zaptel Corporation was
using the mark first.

Additionally, it matters not one whit when the Zapata Telephony
Project started, only when Digium started using the mark.  The Zapata
Telephony project is a completely separate organization from Digium,
and if they plausibly have a trademark on the Zaptel name, that does
not extend to Digium.  Separate organizations, separate trademarks.

>> >> The maintainers of app_rpt have made a strategic decision that
>> >> they don't want to do the work to make their code compatible with
>> >> DAHDI.  There's no technical reason why they couldn't -- there's
>> >> several competing hardware manufacturers who have kept pace and made
>> >> their work compatible with DAHDI.
>> >
>> > Who are these competing vendors????  I know of zero.
>>
>> Let's start with Xorcom, whose drivers are distributed with DAHDI.
>> There are others, some of which work with DAHDI drivers as
>> distributed, some of which modify DAHDI post-distribution.
>
> What is the model or name of the Xorcom Radio Interface?  You are being very
> vague and I cannot find that product offering.

I never said that there were competing radio interfaces, only that
other companies had kept pace with the changes in DAHDI for their
hardware.  Xorcom makes a USB-based channel bank, among other
offerings, and their xpp USB driver interface was distributed with
Zaptel and is still distributed with DAHDI today.

-Tilghman