Question about trademarks in code

[James Damour]

On Sat, 2006-02-04 at 13:51 +0100, Moritz Muehlenhoff wrote:
> James Damour wrote:
> > Greetings!  I am a project admin for MegaMek[1], which is hosted on
> > SourceForge.  It is a networked implementation of the Classic
> > BattleTech(tm) game using Java.  I've been interested in packaging it
> > for Debian for years.  Until recently, the Free Runtimes (like gcj and
> > kaffe) haven't been able to support the game, but they do now (or will
> > sometime this year).  Now I am faced with a dillema: MegaMek has some
> > class names that are registered trademarks, so I'm worried about
> > including it in the Debian.  I'd *hate* for Debian to receive a Cease &
> > Desist order and have to do an emergency removal of the package
> > (*especially* from stable).
> > 
> > I asked on debian-legal, and they recommended against using trademarked
> > terms, so I've started work on santizing the code by renaming or
> > removing all trademarked terms, but the resulting code can't be used to
> > play with anyone using the MegaMek game (downloaded from SourceForge).
> > Not to mention that it's a fork of the code, and a lot of work.
> > 
> > Am I being overly paranoid?  Di I have the correct level of paranoia,
> > and should complete my sanitation and then package it?  Should I just
> > abandon hope of including my pet project in Debian?  
> 
> Normally it's debian-legal that is overly paranoid. Can you give examples
> of the potential trademark violations? If it's a real problem it would
> need to be fixed in your normal code base anyway, because in that case
> SourceForge would receive the C&D letter.

Here's the simplest: "MechWarrior" is a registered trademark of WizKids,
LLC "excluding... online fictional combat game tournaments."[1]  It is
*also* a registered trademark of Microsoft Inc. "for use on computers
and video game players."[2]  It is also the name of the class
representing an ejected pilot in MegaMek
(megamek.common.Mechwarrior).[3]

> 
> Cheers,
>         Moritz

[1] http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=bvnqkh.2.2
[2] http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=bvnqkh.2.7
[3]
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/megamek/megamek/src/megamek/common/MechWarrior.java?rev=1.7&view=auto
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