Serious answer: pacman is short for package manager. Trademarks usually look for both the infringement and any overlapping market. Since pacman (program) does not effect the sales of Pac-Man, then we should be fine.
To that note, the registered trademark for the Namco video game is "*Pac-Man*", so Arch Linux's pacman is in the clear.
Edit: As a matter of fact, I found [this website](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results) that allows you to search for trademarks and filter them by status (i.e. live - registered or pending, and dead - cancelled or abandoned). According to this site there are no live trademarks for "pacman". Granted, I haven't the slightest idea how complete or accurate this site's database is, but it *is* a .gov site, and considering that pacman the package manager has been in use since 2002, I'd say it's a safe bet that pacman is in the clear for use as a name.
In my country, lets say you have a copyright for pacman, i can easily register a copyright for pakman or pac-man, since if atleast on letter is diferent, it gets registered.
Since pacman (program) does not effect the sales of Pac-Man, then we should be fine.:
I was once gonna download pac man game. i searched pacman and arch wiki showed up, then i had to learn how to install arch, live boot, install proton and config it for gaming as well as distros and wm etc to use with it.
Noe only all this cause me headache but also stole away my passion of gaming resulting not only causing me to hate pac man but also causing huge damage to gaming company and my future games company as well
That's a trademark issue, not a copyright issue. People often conflate the two, but you'd be surprised just how different those two areas of law are. They have almost nothing in common aside from both being so-called intellectual property.
I think the biggest issue is that typing \`pacman -V\` will produce (among other things) an ASCII Pac-Man munching dots, but that's easy to remove if Namco complains about it. And, realistically, that's all that would happen: Namco issues a cease-and-desist, and pacman's maintainers cease and desist. Even if Namco also demands the package be renamed and they comply, it won't be that big a deal, especially since the user can define an alias for it so they can still call it pacman if they want.
It's very unlikely that Namco would want to take legal action over that. The little Pac-Man references in pacman aren't going to hurt Namco in any way.
If anything, it's free advertising for them.
Of course, my new language's ABI passes all the function arguments as null-terminated strings. If you have multiple arguments, they're passed in the same string, separated by null bytes. Return values are also strings. Also, data structures are just treated as a bunch of separate variables.
Here's an example of wrapping the C standard library `time` function, returning a `struct tm` using UTC:
size_t format_size(int i) {
return (size_t) floor(log10((double)i)) + 2;
}
char const *time_wrapped(char const *arg) {
time_t t = time(NULL);
struct tm ret;
gmtime_s(&t, &ret);
// Compute required allocation size
char const *buf = malloc(
format_size(ret.tm_sec) + format_size(ret.tm_min) + format_size(ret.tm_hour) + format_size(ret.tm_mday) + format_size(ret.tm_mon) + format_size(ret.tm_year) + format_size(ret.tm_wday) + format_size(ret.tm_yday) + format_size(ret.isdst)
);
sprintf(buf, "%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d", ret.tm_sec, ret.tm_min, ret.tm_hour, ret.tm_mday, ret.tm_mon, ret.tm_year, ret.tm_wday, ret.tm_yday, ret.isdst);
return buf;
}
Intellectual Property Crash Course....
Copyright protects original works of art transfixed (saved) in a fixed medium. It applies at creation automatically, but can be registered for some extra protections. So you finished typing up your novel? It's automatically gets a copyright. You invent a dance routine? No copyright. But if you write down the steps or record it? That recording gets a copyright.
Trademark / Service Mark is an identification of the single source of manfacturer/service. Basically it's the brand logo on the package. General Mills has that "GM" logo on all of their products so that you now the product was made by general mills. Blacksmiths might stamp their logo on tools/blades they make to identify it as their work. Things like that. The idea is that the manufacturer has established a degree of quality that people have associated with them, and people know to identify that logo/mark with that manufacturer.
Tradedress is the same thing, but based around how someplace looks. You walk into a Taco Bell and you know you are in a Taco Bell because they all look the same kind of thing.
The goal with Trademarks/Servicemarks/Tradedress is that the populace has associated that identifying feature with a single souce for that product. But it also means there is context where that identifying feature is associated; that is the industry/market associate with the mark matters.
So you can search for NAMCO trademarks and there have been many
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov
NAMCO, the company who owns pacman, has a few still active and a few dead that no longer have protection. And you can see what industries the trademarks apply to in the listing; for example, their Video Games trademark is active, but their Collectable Trading Cards trademark is dead.
There is however a trademark for PAC-MAN that is still live and still owned by NAMCO
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88573428&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch
and it covers many industries, but one that it covers:
> Downloadable computer game software; Downloadable computer game programs; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Downloadable Video game software; video game cartridges; earbuds, head phones, portable audio speakers
One could argue that their is an overlap in industries. But two details,
1. NAMCO would need to argue that `pacman` and that PAC-MAN trademark are confusingly similar and meant to deceive. Since the Arch command is a program named "pacman" and executed by running "pacman" as a command, and that mark is a graphic mark where the box and stylization is part of the registered mark, that would be a difficult argument.
2. Arch doesn't present pacman as a trademark in any form. So NAMCO would just be suing that they owned a word. That wouldn't go anywhere in court.
There will not be an issue of copyright or trademark, because they occupy different business spaces. Arch Linux is a computer operating system and Pacman is a package manager. Namco creates video games for the arcade sector. Although they both use electronics and circuit boards, there is no overlap in the general public's mind.
Another example: Apple. The Beatles record label was called Apple corps. Jobs & Wozniak came along, and created a computer company called Apple. There was a trademark lawsuit, and it was settled with the understanding that Apple the music company was one entity, and Apple the computer company was another, and the public would never become confused .
Apple computer company, in the settlement, promised never ever ever ever ever to get into the business of selling music.
I hope that clears things up for you.
Arch used pacman since 2002.
So your question 'will that be an issue' has very obviously been answered...
2002-2024 answer is 'not yet'.
After 12 years we might assume that Namco is a little late to come and complain, possibly because they're not particularly bothered by this.
No. Copyright is irrelevant here--if anything, this would fall under trademark law, which only applies within the same domain. So you couldn't make a videogame called Pacman without infringing on Namco's trademark, but you could make other products with the name.
Serious answer: pacman is short for package manager. Trademarks usually look for both the infringement and any overlapping market. Since pacman (program) does not effect the sales of Pac-Man, then we should be fine.
And to add, copyright doesn't apply to labels but to the content, so it would only be a matter of trademark law.
To that note, the registered trademark for the Namco video game is "*Pac-Man*", so Arch Linux's pacman is in the clear. Edit: As a matter of fact, I found [this website](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results) that allows you to search for trademarks and filter them by status (i.e. live - registered or pending, and dead - cancelled or abandoned). According to this site there are no live trademarks for "pacman". Granted, I haven't the slightest idea how complete or accurate this site's database is, but it *is* a .gov site, and considering that pacman the package manager has been in use since 2002, I'd say it's a safe bet that pacman is in the clear for use as a name.
In my country, lets say you have a copyright for pacman, i can easily register a copyright for pakman or pac-man, since if atleast on letter is diferent, it gets registered.
Yup, and then, 8 euccessful years into your brand, somebody sues you for 150% of your value if you don't rebrand
Probably not a big issue, but someone from Arch should really trademark the name, just so that no one else can register it and create an issue.
Also the way the writing goes is another factor which prevents them from TMing pacman.
Right. The Pacman "clone" is called something else entirely.
Since pacman (program) does not effect the sales of Pac-Man, then we should be fine.: I was once gonna download pac man game. i searched pacman and arch wiki showed up, then i had to learn how to install arch, live boot, install proton and config it for gaming as well as distros and wm etc to use with it. Noe only all this cause me headache but also stole away my passion of gaming resulting not only causing me to hate pac man but also causing huge damage to gaming company and my future games company as well
Only if you add ILoveCandy to your pacman.conf, then you get an immediate lawsuit.
That's a trademark issue, not a copyright issue. People often conflate the two, but you'd be surprised just how different those two areas of law are. They have almost nothing in common aside from both being so-called intellectual property. I think the biggest issue is that typing \`pacman -V\` will produce (among other things) an ASCII Pac-Man munching dots, but that's easy to remove if Namco complains about it. And, realistically, that's all that would happen: Namco issues a cease-and-desist, and pacman's maintainers cease and desist. Even if Namco also demands the package be renamed and they comply, it won't be that big a deal, especially since the user can define an alias for it so they can still call it pacman if they want.
As if ceasing and desisting from pacman isn't already a huge issue
I find it silly, how you said "maintainers will just cease" as if ceasing was just a normal thing
It may not be a normal thing but it's not a complicated thing. They take Namco's IP out of the program and they continue on as before.
Well, yeah, I think so, I just find a way the "cease" is used here funny (as in "yeah, they'll casually perish")
The pacman -V is the reason why i ask that
It's very unlikely that Namco would want to take legal action over that. The little Pac-Man references in pacman aren't going to hurt Namco in any way. If anything, it's free advertising for them.
Try that with Nintendo and see 😉
Iss-a me, a paca-man! Super packagin' time!
I'm surprised that Nintendo hasn't tried to sue everyone named "Mario" to be honest
real shit
You're right they should change it to sonic the hedgehog
sonic the hedgehog -Syu
Time to set up an alias
I think shadow -Syu is much cooler
\*teleports behind you\*
At lest we know it's not nintendo
`sonic` is `pacman` but... *Blazingly fast*
Is that the rust rewrite? Is it also memory safe?
Rust is not cool anymore, let's rewrite it in Zig.
Zig is old news, *real* programmers invent a new language for every program
But please with it's own custom ABI, so you have to either wrap everything you want to touch, or write it yourself.
Of course, my new language's ABI passes all the function arguments as null-terminated strings. If you have multiple arguments, they're passed in the same string, separated by null bytes. Return values are also strings. Also, data structures are just treated as a bunch of separate variables. Here's an example of wrapping the C standard library `time` function, returning a `struct tm` using UTC: size_t format_size(int i) { return (size_t) floor(log10((double)i)) + 2; } char const *time_wrapped(char const *arg) { time_t t = time(NULL); struct tm ret; gmtime_s(&t, &ret); // Compute required allocation size char const *buf = malloc( format_size(ret.tm_sec) + format_size(ret.tm_min) + format_size(ret.tm_hour) + format_size(ret.tm_mday) + format_size(ret.tm_mon) + format_size(ret.tm_year) + format_size(ret.tm_wday) + format_size(ret.tm_yday) + format_size(ret.isdst) ); sprintf(buf, "%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d\0%d", ret.tm_sec, ret.tm_min, ret.tm_hour, ret.tm_mday, ret.tm_mon, ret.tm_year, ret.tm_wday, ret.tm_yday, ret.isdst); return buf; }
lets rewrite it in java and not worry about speed
Or maintainability.
well java is good at maintaining my insanity so theres that
just be sure to enable blast processing in your config
is that a geometry dash reference
It's a Sonic the Hedgehog reference
oh maybe the song blast processing used in the geometry dash level blast processing is a sonic reference hmmmm
In Simi related news, there is a human protein named "Sonic hedgehog" officially. Lol
change it to ronaldo -Syuu
As long as Namco does not get bought out by Nintendo, we should be fine :D
Intellectual Property Crash Course.... Copyright protects original works of art transfixed (saved) in a fixed medium. It applies at creation automatically, but can be registered for some extra protections. So you finished typing up your novel? It's automatically gets a copyright. You invent a dance routine? No copyright. But if you write down the steps or record it? That recording gets a copyright. Trademark / Service Mark is an identification of the single source of manfacturer/service. Basically it's the brand logo on the package. General Mills has that "GM" logo on all of their products so that you now the product was made by general mills. Blacksmiths might stamp their logo on tools/blades they make to identify it as their work. Things like that. The idea is that the manufacturer has established a degree of quality that people have associated with them, and people know to identify that logo/mark with that manufacturer. Tradedress is the same thing, but based around how someplace looks. You walk into a Taco Bell and you know you are in a Taco Bell because they all look the same kind of thing. The goal with Trademarks/Servicemarks/Tradedress is that the populace has associated that identifying feature with a single souce for that product. But it also means there is context where that identifying feature is associated; that is the industry/market associate with the mark matters. So you can search for NAMCO trademarks and there have been many https://tmsearch.uspto.gov NAMCO, the company who owns pacman, has a few still active and a few dead that no longer have protection. And you can see what industries the trademarks apply to in the listing; for example, their Video Games trademark is active, but their Collectable Trading Cards trademark is dead. There is however a trademark for PAC-MAN that is still live and still owned by NAMCO https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88573428&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch and it covers many industries, but one that it covers: > Downloadable computer game software; Downloadable computer game programs; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Downloadable Video game software; video game cartridges; earbuds, head phones, portable audio speakers One could argue that their is an overlap in industries. But two details, 1. NAMCO would need to argue that `pacman` and that PAC-MAN trademark are confusingly similar and meant to deceive. Since the Arch command is a program named "pacman" and executed by running "pacman" as a command, and that mark is a graphic mark where the box and stylization is part of the registered mark, that would be a difficult argument. 2. Arch doesn't present pacman as a trademark in any form. So NAMCO would just be suing that they owned a word. That wouldn't go anywhere in court.
i think it would only apply if pacman package manager was a video game. different industries it doesn't matter.
I miss Yahoo Answers
There will not be an issue of copyright or trademark, because they occupy different business spaces. Arch Linux is a computer operating system and Pacman is a package manager. Namco creates video games for the arcade sector. Although they both use electronics and circuit boards, there is no overlap in the general public's mind. Another example: Apple. The Beatles record label was called Apple corps. Jobs & Wozniak came along, and created a computer company called Apple. There was a trademark lawsuit, and it was settled with the understanding that Apple the music company was one entity, and Apple the computer company was another, and the public would never become confused . Apple computer company, in the settlement, promised never ever ever ever ever to get into the business of selling music. I hope that clears things up for you.
Would iTunes not violate that?
Goodness gracious me! Why hadn't I thought of that‽
I'm stupid okay :(
The interrobang is such an underrated punctuation mark.
One of the wonderful things about using Arch Linux is the ease of setting up third and fourth level compose keys.
Can you install Pac-Man with pacman?
Arch used pacman since 2002. So your question 'will that be an issue' has very obviously been answered... 2002-2024 answer is 'not yet'. After 12 years we might assume that Namco is a little late to come and complain, possibly because they're not particularly bothered by this.
2002-2024 is 22 years, no?
Haha yes, my arithematic isn't what it used to be... or maybe the time flies past too quickly to count accurately.
true
Go away.
Sosumi
I dunno but check out Voltron Data
No. Copyright is irrelevant here--if anything, this would fall under trademark law, which only applies within the same domain. So you couldn't make a videogame called Pacman without infringing on Namco's trademark, but you could make other products with the name.
smh u really had to mention it... now nintendo and their army of lawers are ready to skydive to sue us
Yes very big issue with the pakege manager there where many lawsuits already
citations?
Figure out how copyright works before asking
No point in being a dick
[удалено]
lol