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Using Notion's name seems like poor form. Describe your product as a clone if you'd like but use a distinct name.

by Tarq0n 6y ago

coolspot 6y ago
Describing this as a clone is ok, if it is educative project, like all those “twitter clone” every framework has in getting started. If this intends to become a real project, not only notion.clone is a bad name, it is also clear trademark violation and will be shut down very quickly.
tmabraham 6y ago
Oh so the hundreds of Twitter clones shouldn't call themselves that? This doesn't look like a finished product meant for the public so it's fine I think.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  > Oh so the hundreds of Twitter clones shouldn't call themselves that? Not really, no. > This doesn't look like a finished product meant for the public so it's fine I think. Not how trademarks work, AFAIK, although IANAL.
OJFord 6y ago
Maybe if it was anywhere close to feature parity, but this is more like a 'markdown WYSIWYG editor in the style of Notion' than a full clone. i.e. Nobody's (very few people are) going to be looking for Notion and then be happy finding this instead, it seems to me more like I might use it as well, liking Notion's editor, but not wanting all of my/plain notes in Notion itself. Edit: I should probably add that I think people vary quite heavily in how they use Notion - I've previously been berated on HN for comparing it to Airtable, since to me the defining feature and main use is the tables/cards/database/multi-views on to the same data, but others it seems just use it for 'pages' and I suppose perhaps page hierarchy as part of that.
- chaosharmonic 6y ago
  The other issue that you run into is that there are going to be a multitude of projects that are going to attempt this exact thing, which makes it a little tacky to just be the single person who's also running it as a live domain. Just lifting the name of a product you're cloning to register a .clone TLD is simple, but it also inherently means that no one else can, and that's sort of problematic in the face of shipping something you're explicitly describing as a copy.
  - chaosharmonic 6y ago
    ...or at least it would be if that were what had happened. I'm outside the edit window and would have noted it in the parent post otherwise, but may have misread this based on the title and not the repo -.-
- Semaphor 6y ago
  This would have been decently interesting as a "block based WYSIWYG text editor". Because that’s all it is. It barely has a fraction of what makes notion so powerful. So going in expecting something like notion makes it instantly disappointing.
BoorishBears 6y ago
I would agree if this was a real product trying to compete... But this is clearly someone stretching their legs on a tech stack with an homage to Notion.so, not a competitor I mean they literally recommend the original in the first pargraph: > This clone tries to replicate some of the great note-taking features Notion has. If you don't know Notion.so yet, I highly recommend to check it out! The demo is just that, a demo. There's a very clear precedent for this sort of naming for tech demos that reimplement a product in a new tech stack
- slgeorge 6y ago
  And more importantly, the actual company Notion could lose their trademark if they don't try to prevent this. Something few developers understand. Spam was a trademark, it came into common use - it was no longer a trademark.

Using Notion's name seems like poor form. Describe your product as a clone if you'd like but use a distinct name.

by Tarq0n 6y ago

Using Notion's name seems like poor form. Describe your product as a clone if you'd like but use a distinct name.

Describing this as a clone is ok, if it is educative project, like all those “twitter clone” every framework has in getting started. If this intends to become a real project, not only notion.clone is a bad name, it is also clear trademark violation and will be shut down very quickly.

tmabraham 6y ago

Oh so the hundreds of Twitter clones shouldn't call themselves that? This doesn't look like a finished product meant for the public so it's fine I think.

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
> Oh so the hundreds of Twitter clones shouldn't call themselves that? Not really, no. > This doesn't look like a finished product meant for the public so it's fine I think. Not how trademarks work, AFAIK, although IANAL.

OJFord 6y ago

Maybe if it was anywhere close to feature parity, but this is more like a 'markdown WYSIWYG editor in the style of Notion' than a full clone. i.e. Nobody's (very few people are) going to be looking for Notion and then be happy finding this instead, it seems to me more like I might use it as well, liking Notion's editor, but not wanting all of my/plain notes in Notion itself. Edit: I should probably add that I think people vary quite heavily in how they use Notion - I've previously been berated on HN for comparing it to Airtable, since to me the defining feature and main use is the tables/cards/database/multi-views on to the same data, but others it seems just use it for 'pages' and I suppose perhaps page hierarchy as part of that.

chaosharmonic 6y ago
The other issue that you run into is that there are going to be a multitude of projects that are going to attempt this exact thing, which makes it a little tacky to just be the single person who's also running it as a live domain. Just lifting the name of a product you're cloning to register a .clone TLD is simple, but it also inherently means that no one else can, and that's sort of problematic in the face of shipping something you're explicitly describing as a copy.
- chaosharmonic 6y ago
  ...or at least it would be if that were what had happened. I'm outside the edit window and would have noted it in the parent post otherwise, but may have misread this based on the title and not the repo -.-
Semaphor 6y ago
This would have been decently interesting as a "block based WYSIWYG text editor". Because that’s all it is. It barely has a fraction of what makes notion so powerful. So going in expecting something like notion makes it instantly disappointing.

BoorishBears 6y ago

I would agree if this was a real product trying to compete... But this is clearly someone stretching their legs on a tech stack with an homage to Notion.so, not a competitor I mean they literally recommend the original in the first pargraph: > This clone tries to replicate some of the great note-taking features Notion has. If you don't know Notion.so yet, I highly recommend to check it out! The demo is just that, a demo. There's a very clear precedent for this sort of naming for tech demos that reimplement a product in a new tech stack

slgeorge 6y ago
And more importantly, the actual company Notion could lose their trademark if they don't try to prevent this. Something few developers understand. Spam was a trademark, it came into common use - it was no longer a trademark.