Google forced to defend new trademark foundation as Knative community takes umbrage at 'neutrality' claims

Google's open source director Chris DiBona has defended the web giant's motives in forming a new foundation to manage open-source trademarks during a Knative community meeting. The Open Usage Commons (OUC) was set up, according to its board, "because free and fair open source trademark use is critical to the long-term …

[DJV]

OUC(H)!

One cannot help considering that, with a bit more thought and the addition of an extra word beginning with H, the Open Usage Commons could have been known by a much more memorable (and painful?) acronym. How about the Open Usage Commons Horde?

[iron]

Everything I've read about this OUC sounds like it is designed to be as closed, opaque and unhelpful as possible.

[Gonzo wizard]

"Will any other vendor be able to join the board"

A slightly more hostile version might be "Why aren't other vendors in the founding board". DiBona's answer is revealing - "The only thing that's going to prove neutrality will be time" - time and other vendor representation to keep Google honest. With Google the only vendor on the board, neutrality can't be taken for granted - in either the short or long term.

I don't see this foundation being terribly helpful as long as it looks like a closed shop.

[Fat_Tony]

Sounds pretty neutral to me

With no other vendors on the board they're free to shaft everyone equally

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sounds pretty neutral to me

hmm.... didn't a certain senior Oracle exec end up at Google. I believe that he was prone to making some pretty crazy decisions at Oracle.