SSH trademarks and the OpenSSH product name

[David Terrell]

On Wed, Feb 14, 2001 at 03:36:19AM +0200, Tatu Ylonen wrote:
> Friends,
> 
> Sorry to write this to a developer mailing list.  I have already
> approached some OpenSSH/OpenBSD core members on this, including Markus
> Friedl, Theo de Raadt, and Niels Provos, but they have chosen not to
> bring the issue up on the mailing list.  I am not aware of any other
> forum where I would reach the OpenSSH developers, so I will post this
> here.
> 
> As you know, I have been using the SSH trademark as the brand name of
> my SSH (Secure Shell) secure remote login product and related
> technology ever since I released the first version in July 1995.  I
> have explicitly claimed them as trademarks at least from early 1996.

Tatu - 

I'm sure nobody bears your company or its employees any ill will.  We 
can understand wanting to protect your investment of time, money, and
will into your company.

However, I think you're at a decision point with your trademark of
the SSH name.  Either it's a protocol and it's a standard name, or
it's your company's name and it's proprietary.  I think that asking
a protocol to go to internet draft standard status and THEN, after
last call, calling reserved words of that protocol proprietary is
unfair and dishonest.  Is it 'ok' to use the three letters 'SSH'
in the initial version exchange "SSH-1.5-OpenSOMETHINGELSE_2.3.2"?
Should we even have to think about it?

-- 
David Terrell           | If a crypto algorithm is cracked in a forest
Nebcorp Prime Minister  | and a tree falls on a mime, does microsoft
dbt at meat.net            | need to publish an advisory on it?
http://wwn.nebcorp.com/