JavaScript stakeholders call on Oracle to release trademark - again

"Clear case" of trademark abandonment

JavaScript founders and developers are challenging Oracle's continued hold on the trademark.

More than 4,200 developers, creators and professionals have urged Oracle to give up the JavaScript trademark it has owned since 2009, accusing the company of trademark abandonment.

Database giant Oracle has owned the trademark since 2009 when it acquired Sun Microsystems. Since then it has largely ignored JavaScript, though has made several changes (all controversial) to the related-but-distinct Java language.

Unlike Java, which Oracle monetises through licensing, the company doesn't use the JavaScript name for any of its commercial products. Because it owns the trademark, though, nobody else can use it, either.

Last year an attorney representing Oracle told a start-up, Rust for JavaScript Developers, to stop using the JavaScript name because of the trademark issue. According to The Register, Oracle later dropped the case.

Two years ago Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, published a letter calling on Oracle to release the JavaScript name, which the company ignored. Now Dahl is back, but this time with help.

Alongside Dahl, 11 other JavaScript luminaries - including Brendan Eich (creator of JavaScript), Michael Ficarra and Shu-yu Guo (editors of the JavaScript spec) - have written and signed a new open letter asking Oracle to "free" JavaScript.

The authors argue that JavaScript "has become a general-purpose term...independent of any Oracle product." They also say the company's hold on JavaScript "clearly fits the legal definition of trademark abandonment."

"Neither Sun [Microsystems] nor Oracle has ever built a product using the mark. Legal staff, year after year, have renewed the trademark without question. It's likely that only a few within Oracle even know they possess the JavaScript trademark, and even if they do, they likely don't understand the frustration it causes within the developer community."

That's a lot of assumptions, but the authors have a point: Oracle has never really used the JavaScript name (Java is legally distinct), which opens the company up to accusations of abandonment.

More than 4,200 other Java stakeholders have signed the letter, and the authors are now seeking pro bono legal assistance to help file a Petition for Trademark Cancellation.

"It's likely that simply asking nicely will not get a response from Oracle," they write; "a legal challenge must be made."