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Is it worth it to get a trademark for an open source software project?

2 points by danjoredd ↗ HN
So I am working on an ebook reader, which I call Bibliofile. I started it back in March and made the name up without much thought. Yesterday it occurred to me that there might be some other piece of software with that name, so I looked it up and found that there is a Library inventory system that shares that name. However, they have let their trademark expire, coincidentally the same month I started working on my project.

Is it worth the time and money getting a trademark for a personal project that I plan on supporting long-term? I highly doubt that I am going to be able to make money for this piece of software, but I still want to release and support it and it is nearly done being developed.

4 comments

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keikobadthebad
Hm... if it's open, then by definition others can put out versions of the same thing under a changed name trademark or no. All your doing is stopping others using the same name. Is that worth anything if you own the canonical site name?
danjoredd
My main worry is that someone might register a trademark for that name and cause all sorts of issues for me. Worst case scenario I could just rename the project, but my mind goes to the time when Firefox browser, at the time Phoenix Browser and firebird browser, kept bullying other open source projects and it was only their trademarks that kept them from needing to change their branding.

https://lunduke.substack.com/p/why-is-firefox-called-firefox

Thing is, idk how often this stuff happens and if it is something I need to reasonably be worried about especially since another non-trademarked piece of software has that name already

keikobadthebad
Is any of this a problem you are ever going to have...
sydbarrett74
Yes. The nominal cost is worth the peace of mind it would give you.