The Gnome Foundation, responsible for developing the Gnome desktop environment, wants to raise $80,000 to file a lawsuit against Groupon. According to the foundation, Groupon is misusing its registered Gnome brand name for an electronic payment system.
Groupon is releasing a tablet in the US under the name Gnome that allows retailers to redeem vouchers from the marketing company. That is against the sore leg of the Gnome Foundation.
The developer of the desktop environment of the same name says that he has asked Groupon several times to change the brand name of the product because, like the Gnome environment, it is software related and unlike Gnome’s open source license, it is completely proprietary in nature. has. Groupon, however, is said to have rejected the request and furthermore hinted that it wants to market more products under the Gnome name.
The Gnome Foundation now wants to go to court, because the foundation claims that Groupon is infringing the Gnome trademark with at least ten pending trademark applications. According to the legal advisors of the Gnome Foundation, at least 80,000 dollars, more than 64,000 euros, is needed to start a lawsuit. The organization has therefore started a campaign with which it hopes to collect enough money with the help of donations to pay for the necessary lawyers. The Gnome Foundation is also in some rush to get the money together: the lawsuit against Groupon must be formally started by December 3.
Update, 5:23 PM: Groupon says in a response that the company “values its relationship with the open source community more than a product name”. “If we can’t come up with a solution that’s acceptable to us and Gnome, we’ll look for another product name,” Groupon said, highlighting its “strong supporter” for the open source community.