It's not about rights
Chris Pirillo on the O'Reilly matter with "Web 2.0"
As has been stated by both Dave Winer and Jason Calacanis , Tim and his partners were 110% justified in protecting their conference brand. Anybody and everybody who holds a trademark on something profitiable (or, as is the case for O’Reilly, ungodly profitable) understands and supports the decision that was made - not necessarily in how it was handled, but certainly the reasoning behind it. I respect Tim’s personal and professional position in the matter, having a few not-quite-as-profitable brands of my own to protect. Anybody who’s ever owned a trademark [read: profitable brand] should wholly understand. That’s the kicker, underscored by Dave’s editorial: O’Reilly is NOT a non-profit organization.
As I said the other day, the biggest part of this has nothing to do with the law. O'Reilly and CMP have filed for a rademark, and they have all the legal rights they want to assert it. The question is - given the way PR now works, was it a good idea to have the lawyers charge out before they talked to PR? A few years ago, that would have been a stupid question. Now it's anything but, as Tim is rapidly finding out. O'Reilly has branded itself as a champion of open source, which means that this effort actually harmed their brand.
The rest of it - all the legal stuff? Utterly irrelevant. A "valuable mark" has little value after you step in it.
Comments
Is the OSS community two-faced on this issue?
[Daniel Berger] May 31, 2006 20:44:21.480
You know, if it were Sun or Microsoft who trademarked the phrase "Web 2.0", I don't think the blogosphere would be nearly as forgiving on this issue, and I doubt many would accept the trademark to begin with. Or, at the very least, they would blather on about how ridiculous it is that sticking "2.0" at the end of a generic word somehow a trademark maketh.
But no, since it's *O'Reilly*, the blogosphere is giving them a (mostly) free pass, even going so far as to defend the trademark. I smell a big whif of hypocrisy here.