At 06:20 PM 4/15/03 -0400, Ann W. Harrison wrote:

>At 10:04 PM 4/15/2003 +0000, uptownb0y wrote:
>
> >There's some controversy, at Slashdot, the Mozilla forums, and
> >elsewhere, about the use of the "Firebird" name ...
>
>We have three avenues that I can think of. First, appeal to the
>people who do the real work at Mozilla, who may be more sympathetic
>to our position. Second, be absolutely certain that the management
>at Mozilla and the Mozilla users are aware that we are not happy.
>Third, be sure the press understands that we're unhappy and feel
>that we've been damaged. The usual fourth, sue the pants off the
>bastards doesn't work well if neither we nor they have money.

Don't give up on the fourth so soon. Going after Mozilla.org is, of course,
absurd. But going after commercial entities that abuse the Firebird
trademark is a totally different story. Unlike Mozilla.org, RedHat and
Suse are real companies with real assets to protect. Make it crystal
clear to them that Firebird has every intention of protecting its trademark
and at least one of two things will happen. First, RedHat and Suse
will put the screws to Mozilla to avoid legal problems. Second, getting
a lawyer to sue RedHat and Suse on contingency will be walk in the
park, probably a very lucrative walk in the part.


Jim Starkey