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Cc: legal-internal@apache.org,
 Apache Directory Developers List <directory-dev@incubator.apache.org>
From: Roy T. Fielding <fielding@gbiv.com>
Subject: Re: [VOTE] Directory project releases
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:29:19 -0800
To: general@incubator.apache.org

> Niclas Hedhman wrote:
>> Janus is "God of Gates and Doorways" and a moon of Saturn was named 
>> after him in 1966.
>> http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Janus
>>
>> The sited web page is about arbitration of a domain name and to 
>> regain control of such domain name. Janus Capital Group does not seem 
>> to go after every use of Janus, so it is not a matter of trademark 
>> issue;
>> http://www.janus-software.com/
>> http://www-odp.tamu.edu/database/
>> http://www.janus-eu.org/Temp2/index-f.htm
>> http://www.janusassociates.com/
>> http://www.janusdevelopment.com/

No, that is not how trademark law works. It doesn't matter how common 
the
name may be -- what matters is whether the name is distinctive within a
given category of use (keeping in mind that these folks are on the 
Internet
as well) such that they may have grounds for filing suit on the basis 
of us
confusing their consumers.  I didn't say that they would need to win 
that suit.

My point was that the Janus name, like those of all Greek/Roman gods,
is already being used by a dozen or so software projects, including some
open source ones, in addition to there being a wealthy litigation firm
concerned about use of the name on the Internet.

Using Janus as a name for a new product is therefore unwise.

....Roy