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2009年09月17日

Text::Pipe trademark controversy

There has been a series of curious emails from a software developer in Australia who argues that one of my Perl module distributions on CPAN infringe on his trademark. He has a Windows product called "TextPipe Pro" and thinks that my Perl module called Text::Pipe dilutes his desired search results.

It all started in December 2008; I've lost his original mail — I don't keep every bit of rubbish some random people send me — but here is my reply from that time (I've deleted his last name and all email addresses and other contact details):

From: Marcel Grünauer
Sent: Tuesday, 16 December 2008 9:42 AM
To: Simon
Subject: Re: Text-Pipe
Importance: High

Hi Simon,

On Dec 15, 2008, at 10:49 PM, Simon wrote:

> I would greatly appreciate it if you could rename your Text-Pipe  
> package to avoid confusion and to prevent dilution of the keywords I  
> use to earn an income.

Sorry, I won't rename my Perl distributions. "Text-Pipe" and its  
related distributions are only found on CPAN and on github and are  
Perl-specific. There are also people who use this package and I don't  
want to inconvenience them by renaming my packages.

It would also be a major undertaking for me as I would have to think  
of a new name, replace the names, create a new repository and import  
the whole history from the old one (you can't rename a repository on  
github), re-uploading all the distributions (there are several related  
ones), notifying everyone and so on.

Also, neither the word "text" nor the word "pipe" express particularly  
novel concepts in software, nor does the combination of the two.  
Regarding keywords: googling for "textpipe", "text pipe" and "text- 
pipe" lists your software as the top hits, so I don't think you have  
to fear anything from my set of perl modules. Further, I could also  
object that your description "A Swiss Army knife for fixing text"  
dilutes keywords normally referring to Perl.

"Text::Pipe" is not a trademark, nor does it challenge yours.

[...]

Marcel Grünauer

After that, I didn't hear any more from him for nine months, so I forgot all about it. Until the 17th September 2009, when Simon saw fit to bring up the topic again:

From: Simon
Subject: RE: Text-Pipe
Date: September 17, 2009 5:29:03 AM GMT+02:00
To: Marcel Grünauer

Hi Marcel,

TextPipe forms my entire income, and supports my wife, our 4 kids, and my
house mortgage.

TextPipe is a registered trademark (in Australia), but yes, I'd probably
have to register it in every country on the planet.

I've been using that name to describe it for over 10 years.

I am simply asking if you could please change your Perl module name to
Text::Filter, Text::Adaptor or something else.

Please reconsider.

Regards,

Simon

I considered. However, a few hours later, he made the questionable move of contacting my bosses at work about this matter:

Subject: Infringment of trademark TextPipe by Marcel Grünauer
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:38:50 +1000
From: Simon
Organisation: DataMystic
To: Marcel's Boss

[...]

I see this growing into a commercial vs free, trademarked vs 'I can do
whatever I like and you can't stop me because I work for a University'
type-war.

I would like you to get Marcel to change the name of his package to
something that does not conflict.

Failing that, I'd like you to mediate, or appoint a mediator from your
department who has worked for a software company, to help resolve this
matter in the best interests of all.

[...]

Now he was beginning to piss me off. I explained to my boss that I developed this module in my spare time and that we don't even use it at work, and my boss is cool, so he wrote that back to the guy. I also replied to the guy:

Subject: Re: Text-Pipe
From: Marcel Grünauer
Date: September 17, 2009 2:40:46 PM GMT+02:00
To: Simon

Hi Simon,

[...]

Text-Pipe is a Perl module distribution which I have developed purely in my
private time and it has nothing to do with work; it's not even used in any code
at work. As such I see you writing to my boss(es) as highly inappropriate. It
is also a sure way to get me to not consider any changes.

My boss has spoken to the company's lawyers - basically you don't stand a legal
chance to force me to change it. The lawyers see my original arguments (not
novel concepts, more general terms etc.) as valid as well; they also explicitly
stated that trademark law is not applicable in this particular case. Besides I
don't want to set a precedent for this kind of behavior - there would be no end
to it.

I am pleased to hear that your software financially supports you, your wife,
four children and a mortgage. Therefore let me repeat my original offer (from
nine months ago): If you would like to contract me to make any changes you
like, I can send you my rate card.

Regards,

Marcel Grünauer

At the time of writing this blog entry, the Google link Simon wrote about in his email would show mostly his software; my module came in third position on both the first and second page of search results. Maybe he just has a SEO problem, who knows.

The reason I'm writing about this at length is that it raises a potential problem. There are CPAN mirrors in many countries and I guess it would be next to impossible to make sure that no module name resembles any trademarked name in every country. So I ask the perl community to discuss this aspect.

Then something else happened which shows why it is a bad idea to piss off geeks who run the infrastructure. I discussed the whole matter with the fine folks on the #london.pm IRC channel when, after it had been noted that text-pipe.com was still available, Ash Berlin registered the domain without further ado and made it to point to the CPAN distribution.

It is possible that because of this, the ratio of Google search results for TextPipe Pro and Text::Pipe is going to change. I wonder if Simon is familiar with the term Streisand effect.

Note that I have no intention of infringing on anyone's trademark and I have no desire to take away business from TextPipe Pro. Anyone who is looking for a Windows text manipulation application will, upon landing on the CPAN web pages, quickly realize that this isn't what they were looking for and look at other search results. That being said, I don't take kindly to threats — however politely they may be phrased — and pestering my boss about it is a certain way to not get on my good side.

I've also put a link to the TextPipe Pro product web site in the SEE ALSO section of all modules of Text-Pipe 0.09, so maybe that'll be ok.

Anyway, like I wrote, this is a potential concern for the Perl community, so a discussion about it is welcome.

Update: He sent me another mail asking me to remove the links to his site again because "this is going to make the current situation worse, not better". So I did and uploaded version 0.10

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posted at: 17:37 | path: /misc | permalink | 19 comments | 0 trackbacks

nperez wrote at 2009-09-17 19:22:

Pure win!

David Gerard wrote at 2009-09-17 20:11:

Calling your boss to harass you is the point at which he deserves everything that happens to him thereafter.

Robert wrote at 2009-09-17 20:45:

You don't need to do a darn thing nor should you.

Hercynium wrote at 2009-09-17 22:06:

Looks to me like you've done all you need to do, and any further action on his part will likely backfire at this point (more than it already has)

I do have sympathy for the guy, since software is not an easy business and sometimes the smallest unexpected thing can turn your fortunes upside-down. I can understand his fear and frustration. However he should be glad he's not challenging a much larger entity. I've no doubt that there are countless companies et al. that would not hesitate to go on the offensive with devastating results.

If he is smart, maybe he will ask for a fresh start over this and try to be conciliatory. You've already extended a very nice olive branch with the link from the CPAN page. The FOSS community is nothing if not generous. At the least we've got enlightened self-interest in helping each-other :)

Stefan Petrea wrote at 2009-09-17 22:36:

Nice attitude , I like the story

Mike West wrote at 2009-09-17 22:54:

If I were in this position, I would try to help redirect people who find your software while looking for his. Maybe I would put something into the README of Text-Pipe.pm, or put another file into the distribution, or something.

I certainly would not make a point of getting text-pipe.com, unless to offer it to him at cost, or maybe to have the front page point to both of us.

Sure, this is an awkward situation, but I would try to work with him, and yet not inconvenience the perl world incommensurately with inconvenience to his livelihood.

I would understand aspects of his frustration, and try to educate him about aspects of moving the issue forward.

Thanks for allowing comments without login.

hanekomu wrote at 2009-09-17 22:59:

Mike: I did put a note in README, and the domain text-pipe.com does not belong to me.

Marcus wrote at 2009-09-17 23:18:

You started to sympathize when he asked you to reconsider but then he pisses you off by contacting someone who he very likely wrongly assumes is also related to the software as well. Hmmm.

You achieve victory. I'm not so sure it's moral victory though. Perhaps there's no moral victory. But you come off looking like the bad guy to me, nowwithstanding your many fans commenting above me.

hanekomu wrote at 2009-09-18 00:58:

Marcus: His actions are heavy-handed. And I'm aware that my words were somewhat spiteful. But I don't think this is about winning or losing. What I wanted to emphasize were the wider implications for CPAN in similar cases in the future.

Dave Cardwell wrote at 2009-09-18 01:34:

The act of merely pointing the domain at your CPAN module will have little to no effect on your search engine ranking for that term, unless people started to link to it.

You linking to his site from your module pages, on the other hand, is likely to give a modest boost to his rankings so hopefully he’ll be satisfied with that.

mike wrote at 2009-09-18 21:59:

Thanks hanekomu , I missed that you modified the readme.

My comments were not all directed to you; regarding the web site, perhaps others could be nice.

You all seem like you have good goals in mind.

David Moreno wrote at 2009-09-18 23:46:

There's nothing he can do and actually him bringing the point about free/open software developers making "whatever they like" just makes him look silly and ignorant.

Great story.

Alexandr Ciornii wrote at 2009-09-19 18:13:

IMHO, Perl module names are also a sort of categorization. So in "Text::Pipe", "Text" is a main category and "Pipe" - name and additional category.

I added Text::Pipe to Ohloh and Freshmeat.

masuk wrote at 2009-09-22 00:56:

I don't sell software, but I can imagine that it would be quite easy to accidentally disrupt sales this way.

Yes, you're technically in the right, but the simple fact is that you're hurting him and his family, and it wouldn't cost you much to stop. Yes, that fool dragged your boss into it. He may be a desperate jerk, but you don't have to respond in the same way. Show grace and mercy, and help a fellow man out. He's just trying to survive, like any of us, and the fact that he can support himself selling his own software is great.

Jeremy wrote at 2009-09-22 01:36:

Actually, you can actually rename a repos on Github.

In any event, it sounds like you're just being stubborn, but then again, I can't say I wouldn't do the same if I were in your position. :) Seems like both sides need to take a step back and find a better resolution than acting like children.

James Aguilar wrote at 2009-09-22 01:49:

It's quite silly that he expected you to help out his business for free. If it was hurting him that much, he could have easily paid you for your time and had done with it. That he didn't choose that option shows a lack of business savvy at best or a lack of wisdom and ethics (in thinking he could force you to do the work for free by harassing you in your personal life) at worst.

Simon Carter wrote at 2009-09-22 02:48:

> maybe he will ask for a fresh start over this and try to be conciliatory

Can you point to where in my emails I was not conciliatory, where I was threatening, or anything other than completely reasonable? How was I heavy handed? I made a polite request, referenced my 10 years of use of the name, and received some dross about Marcel's rate card.

Yes, after a year of no action, I thought I might get somewhere by going to Marcel's boss. That was my mistake and I freely admit it. I apologise.

> a very nice olive branch with the link from the CPAN page

Great - by placing the keyword TextPipe Pro on the page, now he'll rank even higher than me. It will have exactly the opposite effect that Dave Cardwell implied.

But how do you think I feel now that your mob have registered text-pipe.com? About the same as when a domain name squatter registered textpipe.com and offered it to me - in exchange for perpetual licenses of every bit of software I had written (14 products), plus wanting me to work on his domain name registration system. Frustrated, frustrated, frustrated.

Mike West was right - this action will do nothing but inflame the situation. What was Ash Berlin thinking?

Marcel has used you lot to created a war where none existed. He has also thought that I wanted a war with him. Nothing could be further from the truth.

> but I would try to work with him...I would understand aspects of his frustration, and try to educate him about aspects of moving the issue forward.

I have been the one trying to move this issue forward. I am exceptionally frustrated with the actions your group has taken.

Where is the enlightened self-interest you speak of?

I'm happy to try and work this through - as I have since the beginning.

Marcel, how do you think we can move this forward?

yeah wrote at 2009-09-22 03:38:

cool story, bro

Zefram wrote at 2009-09-22 12:07:

I'm rather stunned that Mr Carter thinks that people are likely to get confused between a proprietary program for Windows and a free module for Perl. Or that SEO for his software package is someone else's problem. Or that changing a name that's embedded in software written by hundreds of people is a sensible move. Or that having only the top two Google results (and only eight of the top ten) is a bad SEO outcome, or makes it difficult to find his software.

A lot has been said here about his attitude, but I don't think we need to concentrate on such stylistic issues. The *substance* of his missive is contemptible, and he has repeatedly shown an inability to grasp the basic circumstances of the issue. It is right to ridicule him, and it is in his reaction to *that* that his attitude becomes a more useful way to judge him.

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