The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office to prevent Synadia from using the logo and domain for NATS, the open source messaging system.
The move follows a decision by Synadia, the vendor behind most of the contributions to the server software, to change the licensing terms of the NATS server, moving it from Apache 2.0 to Business Source License (BSL) in future releases.
At the same time, the company’s lawyers wrote to the Linux Foundation [PDF], which runs CNCF, to end its relationship with CNCF and receive full control of the NATS.io domain and GitHub repository.
“The NATS.io project has failed to thrive as a CNCF project, with essentially all growth of the project to date arising from Synadia’s efforts and Synadia’s expense,” the letter said.
Synadia’s counsel also argued in the letter that the “law is well settled that ownership of a domain name does not establish trademark rights; rather, it is the content of an associated website that may create trademark rights,” going on to claim that Synadia and predecessor Apcera “at all times” controlled the content of the website.”
In a blog post last week, CNCF said Synadia had a number of options in moving to a less permissive software license, but the company was not allowed to keep the logo and the domain for the open source project, noting its charter states “Any project that is added to the CNCF must have ownership of its trademark and logo assets transferred to the Linux Foundation.”
It went on to claim: “CNCF has offered multiple paths that would allow Synadia to pursue its goals while respecting open source principles and community governance,” adding: “Synadia is free to walk away from contributing to the existing NATS project. They’re also free to fork NATS and build a proprietary offering under a new name. What they can’t do is unilaterally claw back a community project and its infrastructure, assets, and branding.”
CNCF said it has also filed petitions with the US Patent and Trademark Office to prevent Synadia from continuing to use the logo [PDF] or domain name [PDF].
“The Linux Foundation and the CNCF have protected the licensing integrity of open source projects before,” the CNCF said in its blog. “There are proper ways for companies to fork projects and take another direction based on business needs. For example, the vendor Grafana forked the CNCF Cortex project under the new name Mimir while the original Cortex project continues to be maintained by the community within CNCF. Synadia’s actions here are markedly different. Rather than creating a fork of NATS under a new name, Synadia wants to unilaterally seize control of the project’s community-owned assets.
“Synadia is attempting to convert a successful open source project into a closed, commercial product – and take the NATS community’s name, trust, and infrastructure with it. Imagine if Google tried to take back Kubernetes after all these years of it being a neutral open source and community-driven project.”
However, Derek Collison, creator of NATS.io and Synadia founder and CEO, replied that BSL would continue to offer code transparency while the server software would revert to the Apache 2.0 license after two to four years, a model similar to other mixed source software companies.
He said: “NATS is primarily funded, supported, and maintained by Synadia. This does not align neatly with the CNCF’s model. Over recent years, it has become apparent that the CNCF may no longer be the best strategic fit for NATS. Rather than face forced archival, Synadia proactively initiated internal discussions with CNCF about a joint announcement regarding a departure, ensuring NATS’ continued health and development.
“To sustain long-term company and project viability, we explored excluding some advanced features and enhancements from the NATS server and licensing them separately instead. Ultimately, we considered a more community-minded approach: to include them in the NATS server while exploring a BSL license model for future versions. While the BSL is not OSI-approved, it ensures source code remains transparent and publicly accessible, reverting to Apache 2.0 after a defined period (typically 2-4 years). An Apache 2.0 licensed server version will always remain available and supported.”
The Register has contacted Synadia for additional comment.
Commenting on LinkedIn, William Morgan, CEO of Buoyant, creators of the service mesh Linkerd, said: “The announcement that Synadia wants to withdraw NATS from the CNCF feels like it is going to end in a messy legal fight. This is not your run-of-the-mill OSS relicensing story.” ®
