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Comment by alloallo | Hacker News Reader

Okay, so everyone thinks that WordPress shouldn't use the name of a well-known jazz musician, but they're perfectly fine with the fact that the Django Software Foundation has trademarked Django, a common Romani word/name?

WordPress certainly doesn't own the name Django, but the Django Software Foundation shouldn't have any particular right to it either if things were fair.

(Oh, btw., I'm a happy Django user - but I'd still be pretty upset if someone decided to trademark my name).

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The Django trademark is for a specific context-- downloadable CMS software. You are free to use Django in other contexts, such as naming a car, a band, or whatever.

Except Django isn't a CMS, it's a framework (a CMS is a piece of software that allows non-technically-minded people to manage the content of a website. A framework, on the other hand, is made for developers).

But my main point is that, while I understand that the Django Software Foundation has a trademark on the name Django in a specific content, it ought not to be possible to trademark a common name at all.

Are you suggesting that the only trade marks be totally made up words? That flies in the face of hundreds of years of tradition. People have been using their own names in their business and need to be able to keep others from unfairly trying to confuse customers.

If Roberts and Sons Cleaners is an established brand in a community, we would want a legal mechanism for that business to protect their brand - without having to change every business name to XYZZY, etc.

I wouldn't have a problem with a name like "Roberts and Sons Cleaners" because, after all, it's a fairly unique combination of words. I would, however, have a big problem with someone trademarking the name "Robert". And that is the issue here: Django is a first name.

I agree it would be nice to be more cut and dried. In practice, I think it would come down to a court deciding if their was the possibility of misleading the consumer, by mimicking a well-known brand in a particular market.

So I think businesses can get trademarks for English words and common names - with the understanding that they might be geographically or market-segment limited in their protection.

> they're perfectly fine with the fact that the Django Software Foundation has trademarked Django, a common Romani word/name?

Yes, because it's not confusing.

> I'd still be pretty upset if someone decided to trademark my name

It's very common for things to either be named after specific people, or to use names given to humans.

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