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Subject: Re: Couchbase trademark issues
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From: Jan Lehnardt <jan@apache.org>
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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:02:09 +0100
Cc: Apache Brand Management <trademarks@apache.org>
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To: dev@couchdb.apache.org


On Mar 13, 2012, at 14:52 , Robert Newson wrote:

> I don't believe any CouchDB committer or PMC member has any interest
> in changing the project name.
>=20
> I personally feel, as you do, that it's the other products that must
> clearly distinguish themselves from CouchDB. The company and product
> called "Couchbase" clearly confuses the community, who reasonably, but
> erroneously, believe that it's related to CouchDB (the truth, now, is
> that couchdb is an important but internal component). Sponsoring the
> "CouchConf" conferences which talks about "Couch NoSQL technology" but
> also "the Couchbase technology" is similarly confusing, especially as
> "CouchConf"'s in the past were about Apache CouchDB and things
> compatible or complementary to it.
>=20
> For my part, the ideal solution would be for Couchbase to rename its
> product and conferences to not imply that they are about CouchDB, to
> me that means not using the word 'couch'. I understand that the
> trademark we hold is on 'Apache CouchDB' and that we cannot assert any
> rights over the word 'couch', but I don't think anyone can deny that
> confusion caused is real. Since the Couchbase product is not CouchDB
> compatible it's surprising that it hasn't been rebranded for marketing
> reasons already.

[both hats]: While I agree that, looking solely at a potential confusion
issue, a rename would be a big step towards avoiding said issue, it is
also not very practical (as per Shane, things aren't binary) to expect
Couchbase to change their naming.

I'd be interested to hear what other measures you think Couchbase could
take? Feel free to take this to private@apache.couchdb.org to discuss
with the PMC as well.

Cheers
Jan
--=20


>=20
> B.
>=20
> On 13 March 2012 04:01, Shane Curcuru <asf@shanecurcuru.org> wrote:
>> (Whoops! Apologies for mixed up subjects and poor threading; I'm not =
on
>> dev@)
>>=20
>> I just wanted to add one other comment about this previous note:
>>=20
>> James Hayton wrote on Feb 20, 2012:
>>>=20
>>> Maybe a crazy idea, but since the end result of any legal stuff =
would
>>> be somebody changing the name of something, why doesn't Apache
>>> CouchDB just re brand itself? I mean we need a website makeover,
>>> etc... Why don't we just ditch the name and come up with something
>>> better with a new vision, new leadership, etc... Lets put a few
>>> features in that people have been asking for, include the big couch
>>> code (clustering), create a new website and call it something
>>> different. (CouchDB 2.0 Becomes AwesomeDB lol)
>>>=20
>>> I understand that alot of people have quite a bit invested in the
>>> name CouchDB, at this may not be something realistic, but this just
>>> seems like at least another option we should discuss.
>>>=20
>>> Just my .02.
>>>=20
>>> James
>>=20
>>=20
>> If the bulk of the Apache CouchDB PMC truly wanted to consider a =
rename (and
>> discussed and [VOTE]d on the matter, then we'd certainly help that to
>> happen.  The PMC *is* who gets to decide the project direction.
>>=20
>> But I'm confident that's *not* the case, since several folks have =
spoken out
>> against it.  I personally think it would be a really bad idea to =
change the
>> CouchDB name - especially since CouchDB is arguably the first project =
that
>> gave such brand recognition to the "Couch" name in the noSQL database =
arena.
>>=20
>> In most trademark issues, I'd think more people would ask why the
>> *follow-on* products don't change their names, rather than the =
original
>> product.  But in this case, I'm hoping that the pain of renaming is =
not
>> necessary, and we can reduce user confusion by both improving our own =
story,
>> as well as asking other Couch-named products to better differentiate
>> themselves and better give us - this PMC, the committers, and the ASF =
- the
>> credit we deserve for building and shipping Apache CouchDB itself in =
the
>> first place.
>>=20
>> - Shane
>>=20