Torvalds steps in to help Linux trademark dispute
Linus Torvalds has been called on to help Australia's peak Linux association in a battle to stop local companies attempting to trademark the word "Linux".
Torvalds has been called on to help Linux Australia Inc -- which represents open-source developers orbiting the Linux software platform -- prove his right to trademark the term in Australia much as he did in the United States in 1997.
"It's been proven for America and now we need to do the same for Australia because, obviously, the word Linux has been used in Australia by different people than use it in the US," said the lawyer representing Linux Australia Inc, Jeremy Malcom.
Linux Australia Inc's entry to the fray actually began as an attempt to protect its own name after a South Australian company applied to register it as a trademark.
According to Malcom, the organisation had been using the name as an unregistered trademark since the mid '90s. But they were "pipped at the post" in lodging an official trademark application for the name with IP Australia in May last year by Adelaide-based Linux Australia Pty Ltd.
