Obelix versus MobiliX: Legal Response Online Now

[Werner Heuser]

In the conflict between Obelix and MobiliX, the
legal response of the lawyers Jaschinski Biere Brexl (JBB)
is online now.

In November 2001 Werner Heuser, owner of the Opens Source
project MobiliX  - UniX on Mobile Computers 
(http://mobilix.org) was charged by "Lés Editions Albert René", 
which is owner of the trademark "Obelix". The charge
aimes on a deletion of the trademark "MobiliX" and
a compensation fee. Also every commercial use of the
name "MobiliX" will be forbidden. Every offense can
be charged with up to 250.000 Euro or as a substitute
with six months prison. Werner Heuser has taken
the lawyers Jaschinski Biere Brexl (JBB) 
(http://www.jbb-berlin.de) to represent him in court. His
lawyers had to work out the legal response until
January 21st 2002.

The legal response (PDF, 22 pages in German) is online 
(http://mobilix.org/mobilix_asterix.html) now.
The document describes the origin of the names Obelix
(from "obelisk") and MobiliX (from "mobil" and "UniX").
Many wellknown names are used to show how widespread the
suffix "ix" is in the IT business, e.g. often
UniX derivates are named by this scheme. This is
followed by an analysis of the pronounciation and 
spelling of the words Obelix and MobiliX, and whether
they can be mistaken from members of the IT business or not.
As a conclusion the charge is considered void.

Since the suffix "ix" is widespread in the IT community, it
seems possible that even more projects will be charged. 
This case is very important for the Free Software
community, too. Therefore the lawyers 
Jaschinski Biere Brexl (JBB) have agreed 
to make the legal response public.

The MobiliX (http://mobilix.org) site 
is dedicated to Mobile UniX systems. It leads you to 
a lot of useful hands-on information about 
installing and running Linux, BSD and other UniXes on laptops, 
PDAs and other mobile computer devices. Werner Heuser offers
his Linux-HOWTOs and his book "Linux on the Road" there.
Besides his work for MobiliX he is a Debian GNU/Linux maintainer.
-- 
|=| Werner Heuser = Keplerstr. 11A = D-10589 Berlin = Germany
|=| <wehe_AT_mobilix.org>      T. 0049 - (0)30 - 349 53 86
|=| http://MobiliX.org         UniX on Mobile Systems: HOWTOs,Software
|=| http://Xtops.DE            Laptops+PDAs pre-installed with UniX
|*| This is no time for phony rhetoric -- Lou Reed