The organization is doing this, to quote Eric Raymond, OSI's president and well-known open source advocate, because "We have discovered that there is virtually no chance that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would register the mark 'open source,' as the mark is too descriptive."
"Ironically, we were partly a victim of our own success in bringing the 'open source' concept into the mainstream," Raymond continues.
Raymond, the individual who first publicized Microsoft Corp.'s Linux attack plan in the form of white papers which have come to be known as The Halloween Documents, will be making a guest appearance next week at Microsoft Research at the invitation of Microsoft. Raymond has not provided specifics on particular topics he plans to address when he voyages into "the belly of the beast" on June 21.
Microsoft = Open Source?
In the wake of the news leaking out that OSI was abandoning its trademark efforts, some open source fans voiced concerns that another organization, maybe even Microsoft itself, might attempt to lay claim to the phrase.
Still others expressed fears that without a trademark, the open source phrase will cease to have meaning. After all, as one anonymous open source fan points out, in today's hot open source world, Microsoft already claims that NT is open source.
The former may seem a little far-fetched, but the latter case clearly has a point. Even though OSI may be moving onward, it's possible that others may take up the 'open source' trademark banner. Certainly, the issue of trademarking the term is far from done, even as the OSI paperwork is allowed to expire.
It seems possible that someone--Bruce Perens, primary author of the Open Source Definition and free software developer, has been mentioned--may continue to push for a certification mark. Perens, a founder of the Software in the Public Interest open software, non-profit support group, made the first moves to obtain an open source trademark in February of 1998.
OSI Has Another Idea
OSI, though, has another idea. Believing it impossible to gain a certification mark for 'open source,' OSI is trying for a new certification mark, 'OSI Certified'.
If approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the OSI will allow products using OSI Certified open source software licenses to use the OSI Certified certification mark. How would this work? Specifics will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.
What we do know, however, is that software licenses that do not square up with the Open Source Definition will not qualify as OSI Certified licenses. For example, Troll Tech's original license for its Qt graphic library, part of the underpinning for the popular KDE graphical user interface, wouldn't have been blessed with an OSI Certified mark.
No matter the name of the certification mark, OSI's ideas remains the same: to create a clearly defined, widely-recognized and agreed upon 'brand' that will enable developers and customers to know that a given program is based on open source software development, not mere open source marketing.
