Any EU company that is using Python can help establish the legitimacy of the trademark

Feb 19, 2013 14:22 GMT  ·  By
Python has been around for two decades, but doesn't have a trademark in the EU
   Python has been around for two decades, but doesn't have a trademark in the EU

Python has been the backbone of plenty of websites and apps, becoming more and more popular recently, despite having been around for a while. But like any open source project, it excels at the technical stuff not the legal aspects.

Which is why it's now facing a rather worrying problem, one UK company wants to trademark the Python name in the UE.

The company wants to own the trademark when related to software, services and everything else related to computers, because it has started to use the name for some of its server products.

This would be a blow for the Python Software Foundation and Python itself, especially since it doesn't look like the company is all that friendly to the foundation.

The foundation is fighting the trademark application, but this requires money and it requires support, PSF needs to show that the Python name has been in wide use before the company filed for the trademark.

To do this, it's asking for help from any company that uses Python, well known, EU companies in particular should be useful. These companies can contact PSF and write a formal letter describing how they used Python and how long they have been using it.

The goal is to have proof from independent parties that the Python name has been used by the Python Software Foundation in correlation with the programming language and the software tools and that it has been so for the last two decades.

"This doesn't need to be long - just a couple of paragraphs, but we would want any description of how you use Python for software, web hosting, Internet servers, VPNs, design and development of computer hardware or software, hosting websites, renting servers (like Openstack), or backup services," Van Lindberg, chairman of the PSF wrote.