Ages ago I discovered that I could either output my pages as HTML or a JavaScript depending on how it was called.
I liked the term LiveScript, it was very appropriate to what I was doing. I searched for the name and found it was the name for JavaScript but no-one had trademarked the name or was using it online for any type of projects.
The only sites that used the name were sites refering to the change from LiveScript to JavaScript by Netscape.
I registered the name livescript.co.uk in 2007, but had been using it for 2-3 years previously.
Someone is now using the name as a project on GitHub, which is going to confuse my customers or potential customers. I have already been asked if I’ve created a new programming language.
IMO, but I am biased obviously, is that livescript should be live javascript, not something that compiles into javascript without any sign of being live. OK, you may be able to do live things with it in the same way you can do live things with javascript but it is not live javascript. My method is.
Is there anything I can do about this?
They must have researched the name before using it, as I did, saw my site and though, “that’s OK, he’s only a little guy, we can trample all over him with no comebacks”…
Unless you trademarked the name yourself you don’t actually have any legal standing. You might try talking to the author of the project on github. And I doubt he looked up your site, because it mentions why he named it LiveScript: (No research required for that.)
Name
LiveScript was one of the original names for JavaScript, so it seemed fitting. It’s an inside joke for those who know JavaScript well.
UK Law, Passing off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_off
I don’t live in the UK so that is as far as I care to dig.
Thanks logic_earth. Does the fact that I was already using the name prevent them from trademarking it?
I doubt that is the case. Who chooses a name for something without checking it’s not already in use?
I’ve spoke to GitHub and the project creator.
Had a reply from the creator today. When choosing the name he looked in the first page of Google. He also replied that had he seen the site “I would have thought of it as some abandoned project as your site looks like it
was made in 1999 (no offence).”
When I chose the name I searched in almost every page in all the major search engines to make sure I wasn’t going to infringe on anything that already existed. I also checked copyrights.
As for an abandoned project, it’s LIVE! It even has a last updated section on the homepage that’s live, and says when the most recent pages were updated. As for aesthetics, when I can afford a designer… 
Well, I won’t be giving up the name or the idea.
What exactly is your goal here? You say you won’t be giving up the name or idea, but has anyone asked you to? It sounds like you have both been inspired by a term that was actually coined by Netscape in 1995, so I don’t see how either of you can lay any serious claim to owning that name. The only company that would seem to have a claim would be Netscape.
‘Trademarks’ don’t have to be registered BTW, although it helps if you plan to litigate.
My goal is to earn a living from what I enjoy, and not be sat like I am today with no food or tobacco.
The problem I have is if I add “powered by livescript” which I’ve been doing for years my clients will become confused.
Confused by what though - the new Github project, or the original Netscape Livescript? The way I see it, you have both chosen a name that was originally used by Netscape in 1995, so really, I can’t see how either of you can get precious about it. Surely the confusion already theoretically existed between your use of Livescript and Netscape’s. Netscape could just as well argue that people were assuming your company was somehow aligned with Netscape all these years.
With the slogan I use, “putting the ‘Live’ back in to LiveScript” there should be no confusion. I use JavaScript. or LiveScript. I don’t compile anything, neither does anything compile into anything else.
Netscape abandond the name, it was being used for nothing. I searched for days, weeks, months, years! It was over 2 years first from using the name to getting it as a domain, I was wary of using it as it could have ment me losing my domain.
I still use JavaScript (or LiveScript as it was originally called) unchanged. I just output and call it differently.
Hold on, I’ve just looked up “compile” and was led to Wikipedia’s page for compiler. Is that what I’ve been doing all these years? Compiling 2 different “lower level languages” (HTML or JavaScript) from a server language (ASP, PHP or Perl) depending on how it was called?
I think there is a higher chance your customers would be wondering if your system is connected to Netscape than a random Open Source project on Git.
Most probably you are putting more worry into this potential issue, than it is worth. I.e. how can you know if the Open Source project will grow, or if it will just die in a year.
You will be much better off focusing on your business, and establishing your own use of “LiveScript”.
Legally you most probably have no claim on the name (or at best a very small claim in UK only), since it has been used in the past and your own use of the brand is not large enough that people know about it. Which is the requirement to establish a trademark by just using the name, i.e. that you are actually so “visible” that people would know who you are when they hear the name/phrase. Finally, Trademarks are given on a by country basis, which means even if you had trademarked it in UK, I could trademark it in Norway and the rest of the world unless you had already done so. And most important, in the event you actually do acquire a trademark, you are forced to defend it if someone else use it, as else you would lose your trademark (which can become quite expensive).
Thanks TheRedDevil. There are a few people that write inspirational replies. You are one of those.