TTSSH and the SSH trademark

[Robert O'Callahan]

Hi everyone. I want to point out some facts about TTSSH that may be
relevant to the claims of trademark infringement by OpenSSH. I'll confine
my opinions to another message :-).

I released my product, which has always been named "Teraterm SSH" and is
usually abbreviated to "TTSSH", to the public in May 1998. TTSSH is a free
software Windows client for the SSH1 protocol. The release was announced
on the ssh at clinet.fi mailing list. There is no way to tell how many people
are using TTSSH, but the number of users seems to be substantial, and I
estimate it to be more than 100,000 (based on the fact that my three TTSSH
Web pages get 2,000-3,000 hits per day most days). TTSSH has also been
distributed through many channels other than Web-based downloads. Many
universities have been distributing TTSSH to their students. It has also
been distributed on CD software collections, including the CD included
with the book "Unix Secure Shell" (published in 1999), written by Anne
Carasik, an employee of SSH Communications Security.

>From the public announcement in May 1998 until today, I have never been
contacted by SSH Communications Security or any of their representatives
--- or indeed anyone else --- alleging that the name "TTSSH" infringes on
any trademarks.

Also, since May 1998, in the TTSSH source code and binary code, its
documentation, my Web pages, and all my correspondence, I have
consistently used the name "SSH" to refer to the generic SSH protocol
suite and the SSH1 protocol in particular.

If there's ever a lawsuit, I'll be happy to testify to the above.

Sincerely,
Robert O'Callahan
-- 
[Robert O'Callahan http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~roc 7th year CMU CS PhD student
"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in
front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and
asked, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?' 'Neither,' he replied, 'but
as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.'" - Joshua 5:13-14]