Web 2.0 Service Mark Controversy (Tim responding this time): Tim O’Reilly responds to the “Web 2.0” trademark controversy which has apparently been pretty hateful over the last week.
O’Reilly also values its trademarks — as do other companies and individuals aligned with the values of openness and sharing. (I’ll note that Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds, that Apache is a trademark of the Apache Software Foundation, Mozilla and Firefox are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation, Wikipedia is a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, and so on.) At O’Reilly, we’ve even had to send a cease-and-desist letter once, to a company that was publishing technical books with the picture of an animal on the cover. That’s what trademark law is for
Controversy about our "Web 2.0" service mark: O'Reilly is attempting to own "Web 2.0," at least when used to describe a conference. I don't know how I feel about that -- I think the term is stupid, but can they really own it? To protect the brand we've…
