beelinebill January 19th, 2008

The following FAQs are for further clarification to Digium’s Google AdWord Policy.

Why does Digium regulate the use of Digium trademarked terms?

Digium takes its trademark rights seriously. The trademarks DIGIUM and ASTERISK signal quality, dependability and the cutting edge, especially to those familiar with IP telephony. For Digium and the Asterisk community, there’s value in ensuring that the trademarked terms are used in a legal, consistent and ethical fashion. Additionally, trademark law requires that trademark owners monitor and police unauthorized use in order to preserve future trademark rights.

Does Digium have an official trademark use policy?

Yes, see http://www.digium.com/en/company/view-policy/5.

What is Digium’s policy toward the use of Digium trademarked terms in Google ads?

Digium recently asked Google to begin permitting the use of Digium trademarked terms only by those organizations on the Digium-supplied “authorized users list.” Following Google’s implementation of this, a number of organizations that had been using Digium trademarked terms were asked to remove the terms from the text of their Google ads. Digium significantly underestimated the number of organizations unknown to Digium that were legitimately utilizing Digium trademarked terms in their Google AdWords marketing campaigns. In short, we now believe we made a mistake and are working to relax the requirements for using Digium trademarked terms in Google AdWords. The resulting change will reinstate trademark rights for the vast majority of those using the terms.

How long will it take until I can go back to using Digium and Asterisk in my ads?

Digium has taken all the necessary actions to reinstate the use of AdWords as outlined in Danny Windham’s blog entry on http://blogs.digium.com and in the mailing list for asterisk-biz. Google has placed us in the queue to implement the system change that will reinstate your AdWords; however, they would not commit to a defined turnaround time. Unfortunately, we have little control over Google’s timetable. Once the change has been implemented by Google, you will unfortunately need to re-enter your order with Google.

I sell Digium products. Can I use Digium or Asterisk in my Google ads?

The vast majority of companies that sell Digium cards or Asterisk-based products qualify to use these terms in Google AdWords.

If I’m a reseller, do I have to sell only Digium products to gain access to the use of the trademark and AdWords?

No, you may sell Digium products as well as others as an unaffiliated reseller. Digium Authorized Resellers receive a long list of entitlements far beyond AdWords use, such as market development funds, marketing and sales tools and support, use of the Digium|Asterisk logo, deeper discounts and an assigned channel manager. To learn more, visit http://www.digium.com/en/ecosystem/resellers/.

Is there a cost for a partner or reseller to obtain the right to use Digium trademarked terms?

Program entitlements such as use of the Digium|Asterisk logo are a key part of our partner programs; however, there is no specific charge for the right to use the trademarked terms. Companies in compliance with our policy can use our trademarked terms free of charge.

Will Asterisk user groups and Asterisk developers have rights to use the trademark and use Google AdWords?

Digium grants rights to the Asterisk trademark to all of these groups.

What are examples of Digium’s trademarked terms?

Digium owns trademark rights to a number of terms, including Asterisk, Digium, Asterisk Appliance, Astricon, Switchvox and Digium Asterisk World, among others.

Asterisk is open source. How can Digium have a trademark on it?

Digium is the original author, corporate sponsor, maintainer and license holder of Asterisk and as such, we have a registered trademark on “Asterisk.” We have chosen the GPLv2 as our open source license. This is common in open source software.

If Digium relies on the community for development and other types of support, shouldn’t that community be able to benefit from using the term “Asterisk,” just as they do the software?

Yes, absolutely, as long as you are in compliance with Digium’s Trademark Policy.

Do other open source companies do this?

Yes, they do protect their trademarks and work judiciously to continue to defend them. Companies like MySQL and JBoss took steps over time to protect their trademarks, and Linus Torvalds has always watched over his trademark on Linux.

What else is Digium doing to protect its trademarks?

Digium has an internal system to monitor use of our trademarks. In addition, resellers, distributors, users, employees and community members often report violations to Digium. We attempt to deal with trademark violations amicably prior to taking additional action.

How does Digium’s focus on this sort of thing help the Asterisk community?

Digium heads the Asterisk open source project and invests heavily in growing and supporting the community of developers, testers, bug fixers, documentation writers and the ecosystem as a whole. We’re also a for-profit company that invests in commercial efforts. We firmly believe that Digium’s commercial success allows us to invest in the community and in Asterisk’s continued development, which benefits the entire Asterisk ecosystem.

How can potential violations of Digium’s trademark policy be reported?

Anyone can report potential trademark violations to trademarks@digium.com.

• Community , Genuine Asterisk , Open Source , Partners , Products , Trademarks
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danny January 18th, 2008

Over the past week we have received a number of charged responses regarding the recent change in policy related to the use of Digium trademarked terms in Google AdWords. Some of the responses supported our attempts to better control the use of Digium trademarked terms. Some of the responses disagreed with the policy, but respected Digium’s right to have changed the policy. Others were from individuals who clearly were unhappy with the change and the process by which it was implemented. We have listened carefully to the feedback, and as a result are relaxing our Google AdWord policy.

While we did provide Google a list of organizations that would be authorized to use the Digium trademarked terms, in retrospect it’s apparent that we underestimated the number of organizations that were utilizing Digium trademarked terms in their Google AdWords marketing campaigns. Underestimating the magnitude of this policy change also resulted in inadequate planning of the implementation of the change – we simply could have done a better job of communicating the proposed change in advance of it being implemented. We also could have better understood the actual mechanics of Google’s enforcement engine – and better anticipated the corresponding result.

In short, we now believe we made a mistake and are working to relax the requirements for using Digium trademarked terms in Google AdWords. The resulting change will reinstate trademark rights for the vast majority of those using the terms. For the confusion and frustration created by this event, we sincerely apologize.

A common test that I often use in determining the proper reaction when something goes wrong is – were we doing it for the right reasons? In this case the answer is absolutely yes. On the part of Digium and the Asterisk community and ecosystem, there’s value in ensuring that the trademarked terms are used in a legal, consistent, and ethical fashion. While it is important for Digium to protect its trademarks, we now better understand just how significant an impact changes in this area can have and just how important it is for any proposed changes to be judiciously derived and methodically implemented.

Thank you for your continued support of Digium.

• ABE , AsteriskNOW , Community , Open Source , Partners , Trademarks
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beelinebill January 17th, 2008

In response to an increase in the occurrence of unauthorized use of Digium trademarked terms, we have recently expanded our efforts to control the use of Digium’s trademarks. One of the measures taken has been to work within Google’s defined programs to control the purchase of Digium trademarked terms as Google Adwords.

In doing so we proactively provided Google with a list of companies that have signed agreements with Digium permitting the use of Digium trademarks. Google will continue to allow organizations on that list to purchase Digium trademarked terms as Google Adwords.

If, however, your organization has been contacted by Google and required to stop using the Digium marks, you may contact Digium directly to request that your company be added to the list of authorized organizations.

For those organizations that are resellers and partners, that are not formally Digium authorized, we invite you to become a reseller or technology partner. To do so please visit http://www.digium.com/en/ecosystem/ and click through to your selected type of partnership.

If the formal Digium programs don’t fit your situation, you may send a request to the trademarks@digium.com email address with some history of your past use and the specifics of your request for the future. Additionally, Digium routinely grants trademark rights to organizations seeking to use the marks for non-commercial uses in support of the Asterisk community. Once again, please submit requests of this nature to trademarks@digium.com.

The complete Digium trademark policy can be viewed at http://www.digium.com/en/company/view-policy/5. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and will work to turn around all requests within 24-48 business hours.

Thank you for your interest in Digium!

• ABE , AsteriskNOW , Community , Genuine Asterisk , Open Source , Partners , Products , Trademarks
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jim January 2nd, 2008

Happy New Year Asterisk fans,

The New Year is typically the time for reminiscing on the past, and looking forward to the future. I’ll also soon be celebrating my 3^rd anniversary of working at Digium. It’s hard to believe how quickly the company has “grown up”, now employing about 120 folks and sporting a modern, spacious new facility. I certainly don’t miss our cramped old offices and their third-hand furniture. But I do fondly recall some of the past traditions, like Mark walking down the hall yelling, “Who wants to go to lunch?” That doesn’t happen as often – especially now that he and I work on different floors.

But while Digium evolved, Asterisk exploded over the past few years - creating a revolution that no single company could possibly manage. Digium can’t do it all, but luckily we don’t have to. This is where the Asterisk community and our “ecosystem” of partner companies come in. We’re fortunate to have a great set of business partners, and in 2007, we renewed our commitment to them by creating a new Technology Partner group with dedicated staff and new programs. We appreciate our partner companies, and we’ll continue to give them top billing and red-carpet treatment.

But we realize there are a lot more companies out there making great products for the Asterisk community than we can keep up with. To help you find them, we recently built a new Digium|Asterisk Marketplace. It’s where users, developers, and resellers can go to get the “parts” for complete open-source telephony solutions. It includes our official Digium Technology Partners, but now boasts a new listing service that almost anyone can join. So if your company has a great Asterisk-related product or service, but you’re not quite ready to be a partner, the Marketplace is an easy and inexpensive way to advertise it to the community.

The price is right – a listing starts at $395 per quarter. In return, your company gets exposure to the thousands of unique visitors that cross the Digium site daily. Or you can get a more prominent “premium” listing for a few extra bucks. For a limited time, you can get a listing for a full year starting at $795 - about half the regular rate.

Later, we plan to add more cool features, such as the ability for users to provide feedback, more categories for listings, and the ability to buy selected partner products directly from the Marketplace site.

Getting a listing is easy – submit your information here, agree to the terms (gotta keep the lawyers happy!), and place your order. Digium approves the listing within a couple of days, and boom - it appears on the Marketplace for all to see.

A lot has changed in the past few years, and of course more changes are inevitable. But I think it’s safe to say the Asterisk Ecosystem is here to stay, and I believe 2008 will be the year that it truly comes of age. By creating new tools and programs such as the Marketplace, we’re trying to help it grow and flourish.

Here’s wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2008!

• Community , Partners
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markster December 25th, 2007

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (well at least to those who celebrate it and/or appreciate the sentiment)! It’s a day when many people, myself included, put an especially significant thought into giving. What many people do during Christmas is give gifts (perhaps in recognition the gift that many Christians celebrate receiving 2000+ years ago).

In the early days of Asterisk, when I went to conferences and sat on stage with folks from Cisco and Avaya and other big telecom vendors, they tended to look at Digium like a charity, and Asterisk as purely a gift. However, it’s important to note that while in some sense, Asterisk is a gift, it is also a gift that has some special meaning and responsibilities associated with it (perhaps more like an engagement ring). In particular, Asterisk is licensed under GPL, which allows a wide variety of free use, but also requires that distribution be done in a similarly gift-like method.

Occasionally, however, I have heard people complain that the Digium GPL license is somehow not a real GPL license, since Digium also offers Asterisk under a commercial license.

This no more makes Asterisk “less GPL” than it makes a gift less valuable just because it’s given to someone else as well. There is nothing about dual licensing that in anyway takes away from what is given under GPL. Furthermore, if the concern is that people can create commercial derivative works without releasing the code of their changes, do those same people who complain also object to the GNU C Library which is released under LGPL? Do they also complain about the Apache web server, which is released under an even less restrictive license? X-Windows? Almost all of BSD? All these systems allow commercial exploitation. The dual licensing model that Digium has chosen introduces an explicit monetary cost to choosing the proprietary route, thus providing greater direct incentive to people to choose to open their changes, and further allowing people who do not choose to open their changes to subsidize the work that Digium does with Asterisk by allowing us to add more open source resources (think Green Energy Credits here). In fact, our staff of open source dedicated programmers has more than doubled in 2007 alone!

The only people with a real reason to be upset feel that way because they cannot choose the proprietary route without paying a fee. In other words, it gets in the way of their desire to make money through proprietary add-ons without having to share in the cost of development of the underlying technology.

I have so many things to be thankful for this Christmas, but among the top of the list is the gift of so many contributers and customers who allow me to continue to give through my work at Digium.

• AsteriskNOW , Community , Genuine Asterisk , Open Source
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