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> We're consulting with a couple of legal experts regarding the name, and it seems that even OpenTF won't be the final name due to use of "TF" in it. Interesti
by thecosmicfrog 3y ago
> We're consulting with a couple of legal experts regarding the name, and it seems that even OpenTF won't be the final name due to use of "TF" in it.
Interesting that having "TF" in the name could cause issues.
Source: https://github.com/opentffoundation/opentf/issues/273#issuecomment-1706947318 https://github.com/opentffoundation/opentf/issues/273#issuec...
- sluongng 3y agoIsn't Tensorflow logo "TF"?
- jonfw 3y agoTensorflow isn't a direct competitor. My understanding (and I am not a lawyer) is that enforcing trademarks is based around whether or not a consumer could reasonably confuse the product with the trademark owners. A user wouldn't reasonably confuse tensorflow with terraform, but might confuse openTF with terraform
- blowski 3y agoTensorflow isn’t competing with TerraForm.
- capableweb 3y agoI'm guessing the issue is that it's obviously "inspired" by "Terraform" which shorthand is TF. My second guess is that using "Open" together with something that implies "Terraform" is also a problem, as Hashicorp might sue them for defamation, as that name would imply that Terraform is not "Open". I'm not personally against that, I wouldn't consider Terraform "Open" anymore, but I'm not sure a court would see it the same way.
- toyg 3y agoThe criteria for trademarks is not defamation, but confusion. Given a product TerraForm, known also as TF, how likely is it that a consumer would be confused into thinking "OpenTF" is made by the same people who make TF? That's the bar to clear. In the past, some trademark owners have been fairly lax, allowing unrelated "Open" versions of their software to be established. The classic case was "SUN OpenOffice", but I suspect they got away with it because "office" was not a wordmark - the trademark was for "Microsoft Office", which is very different. In a lot of cases, the "Open" versions emerged once the software was not sold anymore, so it was impossible to be confused. In this case, though, the software is still sold and likely carries trademarks and wordmarks. Unless OpenTF's pockets are deep enough for some serious lawyerin', it will be easier to rebrand.
- cstejerean 3y agoI'm not seeing any trademark registrations by Hashicorp on TF, nor any mentions of TF in any of the Terraform marketing pages. Not to say that Hashicorp couldn't try to be difficult anyway, but it feels like at this point doing this would just raise the visibility of the OpenTF project.
- capableweb 3y ago> The criteria for trademarks is not defamation, but confusion. I'm well aware of that, I'm mentioning two potential issues, one being the "confusion" part and the other being the "defamation" part.
- throwawayapples 3y agoTerror Form has a nice ring to it.
- toyg 3y agoToo similar to the original. On the other hand, Terror Fort...
- justsomehnguy 3y agoOpen Terror Front then, komrade!
- tech_tuna 3y agoI kinda like Terrier Farm, but might just be me.
- ohad1282 3y agoWe learned that Word Mark is the potential issue here. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordmark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordmark for more details (disclaimer - env0 founder here, co-lead the OpenTF initiative)
- paulddraper 3y agoKinda suspected this. AWS created OpenSearch, not OpenES.
- comprev 3y agoOpenPC aka Open Planet Change "planet change" being an alternative to "terra form"
- comradesmith 3y agoOpenForme maybe?
- aidenn0 3y agoFor a similar reason YP becane NIS[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Information_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Information_Service
- halostatue 3y agoSince this started, I’ve thought that they should probably be using xenoform instead of terraform (e.g., OpenXenoform and xf command).
- b0afc375b5 3y agoI thought "TerraFork" had a nice ring to it.
- cutemonster 3y agoOpen Terror Fork?
- Proven 3y ago[dead]