The SSH trademark issue part #1

[Igmar Palsenberg]

Hi,

I usually stay away from issues like this, basically because I'm not a
lawyer (and don't want to be one), and I don't have a real interest in
these issues.

Quoting Tatu :

> We also have a trademark pending on the Secure Shell mark

This seriously undermines the IETF standard draft. It's the same as
registering 'milk' as a trademark. Both Secure and Shell are common used
words, so this trademark doesn't make sense to me.

I personally also find it strange that this trademark issue has been
playing for 6 years now, and nobody complained using this period. Now that
thing are getting big attention, someone stands up and says 'hey, that's
mine !!!'. I personally call this screwing developers.

By naming the IETF standard the same as the trademark, SSH Corp. strongly
undermines it's (legal) position, and I seriously doubt that the trademark
will hold in court. Luckely I'm not a laywer, so I could be wrong.

> I started receiving a significant amount of e-mail where people are
> confising OpenSSH as either my product or my company's product, or are
> confusing the meaning of the SSH and Secure Shell trademarks

Well, since most people don't read documentation, I'm not suprised. I once
wrong a MySQL mapper class for sendmail, and I get mail asking thing about
either sendmail, or thing that look alike the mapper class I wrote.

I usually answer the question when I can, or point them at the apropriate
mailinglists / webpages. That's life.

Since SSH named their trademark after the IETF standard (or the other way
around), I'm not suprised that people get confused. But can we blame the
OpenSSH initiators and developers for this ? No, don't think so.

Since I created some patches for OpenSSH, this also means that my ass is
on the line here, so I will do some legal inquiries, to see what my rights
are, and what the rights of SSH Corp are in this case.

This also mean that two version of the SSH protocol will arise : One which
is compatible with the SSH Corp line of product, and one which obeys the
IETF standard. No a very pleasant situation, both for SSH Corp and the
other parties.

Licensing the use of 'SSH' in the protocol to the IETF does NOT solve this
issue, since it sill means that those who actually use it need to get a
license to use 'SSH'. Really sick situation in my opinion.

To prevent legal problems I'll remove all reference to the name 'SSH' from
my website, and advice all my customers to drop SSH version from SSH Corp.

Discussion are welcome, in private please.




	Regards,



		Igmar Palsenberg
		JDI Media Solutions


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Igmar Palsenberg
JDI Media Solutions

Jansplaats 11
6811 GB Arnhem
The Netherlands

mailto: i.palsenberg at jdimedia.nl
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