Groupon forces the GNOME Foundation to defend its trademark

The GNOME Foundation has launched a fundraising effort to defend its GNOME trademark in light of Groupon’s launch of a tablet product with a similar name. This has caused shockwaves throughout the Linux community as angry users rally to GNOME’s cause.

OMG Ubuntu reports that Groupon seemed to know exactly what it was doing when it launched its GNOME tablet product:

Could it just be that they’ve never heard of GNOME before? Highly unlikely.

Even the most Saul Goodman-y of lawyers would first check existing trademarks and investigate the company(s) owning or contesting. Even assuming that lapse in professionalism, most would have at least given the name a quick Google. Damningly, the company has previously claimed to be ‘fuelled by open-source’.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here