Company type | Private |
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Headquarters | Beaverton, Oregon, US |
Website |
www |
The Linux Mark Institute (LMI, fully "LMI Oregon, LLC" [1]) is an organization which administers the " Linux" trademark on behalf of Linus Torvalds for computer software which includes the Linux kernel, computer hardware utilizing Linux-based software, and for services associated with the implementation and documentation of Linux-based products.
The Linux trademark is owned by Linus Torvalds in the U.S., [2] Germany, the E.U., and Japan for "Computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation". The assignment of the trademark to Torvalds occurred after a lawsuit against attorney William R. Della Croce Jr., of Boston, who had registered the trademark in the US in September 1995 [3] and began in 1996 to send letters to various Linux distributors, demanding ten percent of royalties from sales of Linux products. [4] A petition against Della Croce's practices was started, [5] and in early 1997, WorkGroup Solutions, Yggdrasil, Linux Journal, Linux International, and Torvalds appealed the original trademark assignment as "fraudulent and obtained under false pretenses". [5] By November, the case was settled and Torvalds owned the trademark. [3]
LMI originally charged a nominal sublicensing fee for use of the Linux name as part of trademarks, [4] but later changed this in favor of offering a free, perpetual worldwide sublicense. [6]
LMI was headquartered in Monterey, California until at least 2005. [7] [8] Since at least 2009 it was headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon. [9]
LMI has restructured its sublicensing program. Our new sublicense agreement is: Free — approved sublicense holders pay no fees; Perpetual — sublicense terminates only in breach of the agreement or when your organization ceases to use its mark; Worldwide — one sublicense covers your use of the mark anywhere in the world