[OSM-talk] Recent edits in the wiki / Trademark issue

[Paul Norman]

> From: Ilya Zverev [mailto:zverik at textual.ru]
> Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Recent edits in the wiki / Trademark issue
> 
> Hi. Since no one has explained, I'd quote a part from OSMF Board Meeting
> Minutes:
> 
> > OSMF received C+D letter from someone who trademarked the word
> > “Geocode(TM)” and asks us to remove all references to this from our
> > web site where it is connected in some way with Google services. Simon
> > is in contact with a lawyer about this. We might actually remove the
> > few occurrences because they are not essential to us.
> 
> So, you can still use "geocode" as a word. But you cannot, as it seems,
> use it in relation with Google services. That is, no "geocode using
> google" and such. That's why some links to Google Maps were removed. I
> don't know about Nominatim, especially MapQuest's Nominatim, but to be
> on a safe side, better use "search". And if you don't mention any
> services, you can use that word freely, as in "now having parsed
> coordinates, do the reverse geocoding to aquire their human-readable
> locations". After all, the wikipedia page for "Geocoding" doesn't
> mention any trademarks (although it has Google Maps as its first
> reference).

I have no more information than what's publically available but my bet is that the trademark owner is going after Google. Without any more detail than what has been released it's hard to say, but I quite understand if the board is holding off on releasing more details until after they get more legal advice.