11 RFR (XS) 8205956: Fix usage of “OpenJDK” in build and test instructions (original) (raw)

mark.reinhold at oracle.com mark.reinhold at oracle.com
Thu Jun 28 18:02:54 UTC 2018

2018/6/27 23:21:34 -0700, volker.simonis at gmail.com:

On Thu, Jun 28, 2018 at 12:08 AM, mark.reinhold at oracle.com wrote:

...

“OpenJDK” is a trademarked term, per the OpenJDK Trademark Notice [1]. As such it should be used only as an adjective, and not as a noun. Phrases such as “the OpenJDK” could be replaced by the more correct, and much more verbose, “the OpenJDK JDK,” or “the open-source JDK,” but in most cases the context is sufficiently clear that we can just write “the JDK.” Sorry, but I don't see any sense in this change!

Trademark law doesn’t always make a lot of sense.

Do you plan to do the same for the OpenJDK web pages and the OpenJDK Wiki.

Yes, on a best-effort basis, but priority will be given to more-prominent documents such as these.

Do you plan to scan all the OpenJDK mails and reject them if they use "OpenJDK" inappropriately?

No, of course not. That’d be silly.

And by the way, "JDK" is an Oracle trademark as well (see [1]) so this change is basically a NOP.

Trademark law doesn’t always make a lot of sense.

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