this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you modify a trademarked product and sell/distribute it, you can't use the trademarked name to describe it unless you get permission to do so.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

unsurprisingly, it turns out to be vastly more complicated than that

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Unless you refer to something other than violation of a trademark, I'm curious to know how it's more complicated than that?

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

WP was explicitly not a trademarked term

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I haven't stumpled upon anything that complained about the use of the letters WP.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What do you think the trademark claim against WPEngine is exactly?

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 9 points 1 month ago

New blog smell, most likely

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] kgMadee2@mathstodon.xyz 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@smpl @db0 yeah, which has 0 legs to stand on. Hence the question about nominative use ...

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

There does seem to be confusion among WPEngine customers from exhibit document. Whether they are in violation of the trademark or not is up to a judge to decide on. WPEngine have recently been doing a lot of changes on their website to clarify that they are not Wordpress. That does not automatically make them in violation, but it indicates that there were areas where they could have been more clear in their communication to customers.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

explain to me your understanding of nominative use, for a start

(or, preferably, don't)

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That would be if WPEngine sold hosting of an unmodified Wordpress codebase.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

you're on matt's legal team right

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] kgMadee2@mathstodon.xyz 6 points 1 month ago

@smpl @dgerard well, you sure got the smarts

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

what... what exactly do you think people like dreamhost and bluehost and such do? in your mind, do they have special dreampress and bluepress "vendored" versions of wordpress?

good lord

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm only talking about trademark law. I'm not arguing what's morally right or wrong, that's a subjective perspective. I'm not able to tell if Dreamhost and Bluehost are violating the trademark, but from what I know they are generic webhosting companies and not as easily confused with Wordpress. In my personal opinion having had a quick look at Dreamhosts page about hosting Wordpress. It seems quite obvious that they only host the Wordpress software, with prominent phrases like "optimized for WordPress" and "Recommended by WordPress.org".

[–] self@awful.systems 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

photomatt? get the fuck off my instance photomatt

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

wouldn't that just be funny as fuck

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i'm not saying he's been sockpuppeting on the orange site, i'm just asking

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 3 points 1 month ago

user: metamichael created: 23 hours ago

lul

[–] self@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

the only way to know for sure is to do a Photography Matthew photo critique thread and see if I get a nasty letter