Gruber's code is protected by copyright, but nobody uses his code as anything other than a reference. The process expressed in the code could conceivably be pa

Gruber's code is protected by copyright, but nobody uses his code as anything other than a reference. The process expressed in the code could conceivably be patented, but he's taken no steps to do so to my knowledge. He freely and openly admits that the formatting syntax of Markdown is derived from existing de facto conventions, so good luck to anybody who tries to patent that. The name "Markdown" could be trademarked, but he never did. Even if he had, his trademark would likely be invalid (genericized) since he has never enforced it.