Subject: RE: Kerberos trademark

From: "Tim Alsop" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 19:04:20 +0100

Hi,

Can somebody explain the meaning/significance of this trademark
reference ? Does it mean that companies like ours need to ask for
permission whenever we mention Kerberos?

Also, do MIT own the Kerberos trademark for worldwide use, or just USA,
or not at all ?

Thanks,
Tim Alsop
CyberSafe Limited

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Jeffrey
Hutzelman
Sent: 09 July 2004 19:25
To: Sam Hartman; Simon Josefsson
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Kerberos trademark

On Thursday, July 08, 2004 16:42:28 -0400 Sam Hartman <[email-masked]>

wrote:

>>>>>> "Simon" == Simon Josefsson <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>     Simon> Clarification says: (*TM) Project Athena, Athena, and
>     Simon> Kerberos are trademarks of the Massachusetts Institute of
>     Simon> Technology (MIT). No commercial use of these trademarks may
>     Simon> be made without prior written permission of MIT.
>
> Well, section 3.6 only requests Contributors to make such a claim.
>
> However I'm not clear that trademark claims are allowed in the text of
> an RFC.  If such claims are not allowed then the claim should be
> removed from the RFC.
>
> Nothing in this message should be interpreted to be a statement about
> what rights MIT claims or about how claimed trademarks can be used.

Identification of trademarks used in the document is permitted, and will
be 
preserved by the RFC Editor.  See RFC3667 Section 4.2(a)(D).  However,
the 
usage restriction is inappropriate here; instead, MIT should make an IPR

submission.  This could be as simple as a copy (unmodified) of the 
paragrapgh Simon quotes.

My reading of section 3.6 is that MIT is not specifically required to
make 
such a submission.  However, I would encourage that action.

---

From: Sam Hartman <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 14:55:38 -0400

>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Alsop <[email-masked]> writes:

    Tim> Hi, Can somebody explain the meaning/significance of this
    Tim> trademark reference ? Does it mean that companies like ours
    Tim> need to ask for permission whenever we mention Kerberos?

I recommend you talk to a lawyer versed in trademark law for your
jurisdiction to ask these questions.  I'm fairly sure I know the
answers for the US, but if I were to answer the general question it
might be interpreted as a statement from MIT.

--Sam