I'm cancelling my Comodo certs today. It's scary that this is the largest CA in the world.
Sibling comments have brought up some good points about the baseless claims in this post. The CEO also quotes this Let's Encrypt blog post on "Why 90 Days":
"Ninety days is nothing new on the Web. According to Firefox Telemetry, 29% of TLS transactions use ninety-day certificates. That’s more than any other lifetime"
so whose certs are these? Of course Comodo's!!! So they are admitting they are copying our innovation of 90 day free ssl certs!
So is the CEO saying that 29% of TLS transactions on the web are on sites which use Comodo's 90-day free trial SSL certificates, probably used on sites with the least traffic on the web? That at any one time, 29% of TLS traffic is over an unrenewable 90-day trial cert? Huh, seems implausible for some reason!
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The post right above is also misinformed as well:
From a legal standpoint (ISRG) should have trademarked this when they started using it publicly in November of 2014. There negligence to have done so is why this debate is happening. Then they want to cry foul because of their failure to follow the simplest of product protections. Registering your trademarks. The one who is in possession of the registered trademark is the owner, and that is the law.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but "from a legal standpoint," there has to be evidence of use in commerce before a trademark can be registered, and it's crystal clear that Comodo did not use "Let's Encrypt" in commerce, and it's also crystal clear that ISRG did.
Even more, you gain a trademark simply by using a mark in, well, trade (commerce). It isn't required to register a trademark in order to have the trademark, or to be able to protect it. Yes, your case is stronger if it's registered, but registration is not required.
Federal registration is not required to establish rights in a trademark. Common law rights arise from actual use of a mark and may allow the common law user to successfully challenge a registration or application.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but "from a legal standpoint," there has to be evidence of use in commerce before a trademark can be registered, and it's crystal clear that Comodo did not use "Let's Encrypt" in commerce, and it's also crystal clear that ISRG did.
Yes, and then after the mark is approved you have to provide evidence of use, which can be nothing more than a screenshot of a webpage (plus a $250 filing fee). Filing evidence of use can be delayed up to 5 times I believe, meaning you have plenty of time to file. If you fail to file, you will lose your mark though.
Comments
I'm cancelling my Comodo certs today. It's scary that this is the largest CA in the world.
Sibling comments have brought up some good points about the baseless claims in this post. The CEO also quotes this Let's Encrypt blog post on "Why 90 Days":
So is the CEO saying that 29% of TLS transactions on the web are on sites which use Comodo's 90-day free trial SSL certificates, probably used on sites with the least traffic on the web? That at any one time, 29% of TLS traffic is over an unrenewable 90-day trial cert? Huh, seems implausible for some reason!
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The post right above is also misinformed as well:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but "from a legal standpoint," there has to be evidence of use in commerce before a trademark can be registered, and it's crystal clear that Comodo did not use "Let's Encrypt" in commerce, and it's also crystal clear that ISRG did.
Even more, you gain a trademark simply by using a mark in, well, trade (commerce). It isn't required to register a trademark in order to have the trademark, or to be able to protect it. Yes, your case is stronger if it's registered, but registration is not required.
http://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/trademark-faqs#1...
Federal registration is not required to establish rights in a trademark. Common law rights arise from actual use of a mark and may allow the common law user to successfully challenge a registration or application.
Very good point, trademarks are established by using them. The Comodo CEO should know this aspect of law.
I bet his general council is screaming at him right now. This could be used as evidence of malfeasance or general character issues.
You can also file for "intent to use".
Yes, and then after the mark is approved you have to provide evidence of use, which can be nothing more than a screenshot of a webpage (plus a $250 filing fee). Filing evidence of use can be delayed up to 5 times I believe, meaning you have plenty of time to file. If you fail to file, you will lose your mark though.
I would imagine you lose registration of the trade mark since actually being the first user of the trade mark is enough to claim the trade mark.
Comodo is only large because of bulk deals they made with vendors of related services such as hosting.