

Response to Nodejitsu NPM Trademark - voidfiles
https://gist.github.com/mikeal/9242748

======
latj
I pledge not to use nodejitsu or have any dealings with nodejitsu employees
until I see a blog post stating that they have changed their minds and are not
going to hijack npm trademark.

~~~
PlNG
I pledge not to use nodejitsu or have any dealings with nodejitsu employees.

There's nothing to stop them from saying "sorry", and equally nothing to stop
them from doing it again. It should not have happened in the first place.

------
coenhyde
Issacs wrote the initial npm and was by far the largest contributor.

[https://github.com/npm/npm/graphs/contributors](https://github.com/npm/npm/graphs/contributors)

~~~
spikels
According to Mikeal he "wrote the original version of the npm registry". More
of his thoughts on the history of NPM here:

[https://gist.github.com/mikeal/8947417](https://gist.github.com/mikeal/8947417)

~~~
mikealAgain
the registry, yes, not npm itself. isaacs also has committed more to the
actual registry code than I have as well.

------
rlidwka
I wonder how it relates to a few npm forks
([https://github.com/rlidwka/yapm](https://github.com/rlidwka/yapm),
[https://github.com/visionmedia/npm](https://github.com/visionmedia/npm))
created earlier this year, especially to second one since @visionmedia didn't
change its name...

And what about alternate npm-compatible registries
([https://github.com/mbrevoort/node-reggie](https://github.com/mbrevoort/node-
reggie),
[https://github.com/rlidwka/sinopia](https://github.com/rlidwka/sinopia),
[https://github.com/cnpm/cnpmjs.org](https://github.com/cnpm/cnpmjs.org)), not
based on CouchDB?

"npm" isn't only a product name anymore since it's used extremely widely, so
this doesn't seem like a good thing to do.

~~~
ender7
In the trademark world you are arguing that "npm" has become "genericized"
[1]. That certainly can happen, but that would be a very hard argument to make
given npm's relative youth and the lack of true use as a generic. The people
you link are either forking the actual npm client (in which case they are
referring to it as a proper noun), or are building their own repo
architecture, in which case they refer to it as an "npm registry" or "npm
repository", not just "an npm".

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark)

~~~
rlidwka
As far as I remember, "npm registry" is a trademark as well. Isn't it? At
least, that's what is written here: [https://github.com/npm/npm#legal-
stuff](https://github.com/npm/npm#legal-stuff) .

My point is: any single package README contains a phrase "install me using
`npm install whatever`". It feels like it is generalized already...

------
petercooper
Had to go 4 pages back in HN to find this. Guess this story is getting flagged
by someone.

~~~
imdsm
I saw it via Node Weekly. Wondered why I didn't see it on HN. Go to post the
links, already posted. Strange!

------
troymc
It's my understanding that in open source communities, the relevant trademarks
are usually held by a community-led foundation (e.g. the Apache Software
Foundation, the Python Software Foundation). Is there no "Node Foundation"?

~~~
rlidwka
There is no node foundation, "Node.js" is a Joyent's trademark. We had
discussed this particular bikeshed in the mailing list last year. :)

------
joeevans1000
Well. This is the week I started really getting into node. It's also the week
I found about this. It's all disheartening. It's probably a necessary
awakening step for developers in regards to truly considering the ownership of
their tools.

I hope the npm replacement word is going to be as easy and short, or even more
so. nnn? "nnn is not npm"?

~~~
btd
Maybe just n3?

PS: It is weird that node.js community well known for internal battles.
Everybody throw shit at each other and nobody win from this.

------
aioprisan
Why hadn't nodejitsu trademarked npm beforehand, if they believed the owned
the right to it?

------
camus2
so who owns npm?

~~~
cevn
Well, before Jason Smith started to try to monetize npm, I would have said
nobody. It's open source, right?

After, well, he's the first one to do it, and it's not as though anyone else
was in that space. So to me he has a better claim than Nodejitsu.

It's possible that my knowledge is incomplete though so if anyone knows better
please correct my misconceptions.

I can't really see Nodejitsu's claim here. Also, why didn't nodejitsu voice
their reservations over his use of npm before Jason decided to monetize the
project? I feel as though either we don't know the whole story or Nodejitsu is
pulling a fast one on the community.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
> Well, before Jason Smith started to try to monetize npm, I would have said
> nobody. It's open source, right?

That's not what open source man. There are still copyright notices in open
source code.

