Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

Hmmm.... This doesn&#x27;t seem to line up with what Gnome said [0]:<p>&gt; It was almost inconceivable to us that Groupon, with over $2.5 billion in annual revenue, a full legal team and a huge engineering staff would not have heard of the GNOME project, found our trademark registration using a casual search, or even found our website, but we nevertheless got in touch with them and asked them to pick another name. Not only did Groupon refuse, but it has now filed even more trademark applications (the full list of applications they filed can be found here [1], here [2] and here). To use the GNOME name for a proprietary software product that is antithetical to the fundamental ideas of the GNOME community, the free software community and the GNU project is outrageous.<p>Yet Groupon says:<p>&gt; We’ve been communicating with the Gnome Foundation for months to try to come to a mutually satisfactory resolution, including alternative branding options, and we’re happy to continue those conversations. And if we can’t come up with a resolution, we’ll be glad to look for another name.<p>If we take the Gnome post as fact it appears Groupon thought they could get away with this then when they saw the (potential) backlash they backed away from their position. This may not be the case but I&#x27;m much more inclined to believe Gnome over Groupon<p>[0] <a href="https://www.gnome.org/groupon/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gnome.org&#x2F;groupon&#x2F;</a><p>[1] <a href="http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86200190%0A86200193%0A86200194%0A86200196%0A86200657%0A86200661%0A86200759%0A86200763%0A86200765%0A86227618%0A&amp;caseType=SERIAL_NO&amp;searchType=multiStatus" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tsdr.uspto.gov&#x2F;#caseNumber=86200190%0A86200193%0A8620...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86287930%0A86287935%0A86287938%0A86287940%0A86287946%0A86287951%0A&amp;caseType=SERIAL_NO&amp;searchType=multiStatus" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tsdr.uspto.gov&#x2F;#caseNumber=86287930%0A86287935%0A8628...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86441913%0A86441922%0A86441923%0A86441925%0A86441926%0A86441930%0A86441933%0A86441934%0A86441937%0A86441941%0A86441945%0A86441951%0A&amp;caseType=SERIAL_NO&amp;searchType=multiStatus" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tsdr.uspto.gov&#x2F;#caseNumber=86441913%0A86441922%0A8644...</a>

How is it that every time I see any article, blog post, whatever, about Groupon, including posts by Groupon themselves, I find myself feeling kinda like I need a shower? Some of their sliminess gets on me every time I come in contact with anything they do.<p>It takes incredible chutzpah (and not in a good way) to operate the way they operate. They wanted to trademark &quot;Gnome&quot; for a software product, and expected the GNOME project to just roll over and let it happen! It&#x27;s as though no one else on the planet even exists or matters, in their estimation.<p>How is it that so many seemingly reputable investors are involved in this thing again? Groupon should have died on the vine six months into the story, but it didn&#x27;t, and now we have to deal with their bullshit forever, I guess.

Groupon lies. However the end result is good either way for GNOME and open source. Now the only question is why was the fastest up voted post in HN history which was Gnome vs Groupon in favor of Gnome moderated to the second page while this Groupon post is at the top of the front page with almost no votes!<p>Does someone at HN have stock in groupon or something? Either way it&#x27;s time for a transparent Blockchain based HN&#x2F;reddit. This moderator bias crap is bs.

From the linked post:<p>&gt; UPDATE: After additional conversations with the open source community and the Gnome Foundation, we have decided to abandon our pending trademark applications for “Gnome.” We will choose a new name for our product going forward.

In the words of Winston Churchill, more or less:<p>Groupon will always do the right thing... but only after everything else fails.

As a show of good faith, Groupon should write the Gnome Foundation a check for the remaining $12k (currently at $68k)

&quot;There is some recent confusion&quot; is such a wonderful euphemism.

See <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8590335" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8590335</a>

New trademark under consideration... KDE :)

Interestingly, their largest publicity bump since July was largely negative, at least among those that that would read tech news: <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=groupon" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;trends&#x2F;explore#q=groupon</a><p>Considering that their &lt;name-TBD&gt; point-of-sale platform was largely targeted at small businesses that assumingly would follow this type of news, I am curious how long it takes for them to rebrand this product and how long they wait to roll it out... if at all.

&quot;We love open source at Groupon. We have open sourced a number of projects on Groupon github.&quot;<p>I would have expected some reference to how crucial open source has been, and continues to be, to Groupon&#x27;s ability to function as a modern internet business. Not a small omission.

I hope they rename it to &quot;Washington Redskins&quot;.

Gnome made more than 60k from this, while Groupon declined their plans. Flawless victory?