Huh, interesting. Bluesky the company trademarked the name of "AT Protocol" as "primarily a defensive measure" against abuse.
Going forward, "most everyday use cases [won't] require a license".
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@stefan@stefanbohacek.online
I think its a good idea in case another company tries to trademark it, and we end up with a situation similar to javascript
@irelephant It's not quite the same though, no?
Eg. Python Software Foundation trademarking "Python" makes sense.
This is more like someone trademarking SMTP.
If Mastodon trademarked ActivityPub, this would also look highly unusual.
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online
doesn't the w3c hold the trademarks for AP?
@irelephant I wouldn't expect that, and don't really see any evidence that "ActivityPub" has been trademarked by anyone.
Trying to see if there is a precedence for this and learning about the "EMAIL invention controversy".
"In 1982, [American engineer, entrepreneur, and anti-vaccine activist V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai] registered the copyright for the source code and user documentation of the FORTRAN program called EMAIL."
Yikes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Ayyadurai#EMAIL_invention_controversy
![morph [TEMP]](https://morph.todon.de/system/accounts/avatars/116/512/390/928/175/180/original/f1cf7ebd32c8d785.png "morph [TEMP]")
@stefan yeah, that gives me pause. Before this came up I was discussing the possibility with @mfeilner about the term "Fediverse" being trademarked by someone somewhere for possible rent-seeking. I know we have a lot of prior art and consider it as part of the commons but I don't know if that actually means real-world protection for the term.
