The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has reached an agreement with Synadia, the company behind open source messaging system NATS, which will see it control the trademark, domain name, and GitHub repositories.
The agreement follows a dispute over Synadia’s decision to move its NATS code from the Apache 2.0 to Business Source License (BSL) in future releases.
The dispute saw CNCF file a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office to prevent Synadia from using the logo and domain for NATS. At the same time, Synadia’s lawyers told the Linux Foundation, which runs CNCF, that it intended to end its relationship with CNCF and expected to receive full control of the NATS.io domain and GitHub repositories.
Following productive discussions, the two organizations have agreed to “align expectations and reinforce open governance.” Synadia will assign its two NATS trademark registrations to the Linux Foundation to secure the project’s neutral stewardship, a statement said.
Meanwhile, CNCF will continue to hold the NATS infrastructure and assets, including the NATS.io domain name and GitHub repositories, under the Apache 2.0 license.
In a prepared statement, Todd Moore, SVP of Community Operations at the Linux Foundation, said: “As steward of the NATS project, CNCF is committed to upholding open collaboration, neutral governance, and shared ownership so NATS can continue to grow and thrive as a community-driven project. We value all of Synadia’s efforts in developing and contributing to NATS – including their investment in defense of the NATS trademark – and appreciate their continued support of the project.”
The joint statement also said Synadia would be free to pursue its own commercial interests by building on top of the open source NATS project. “As with any open source codebase, if Synadia chooses to fork the NATS server code for a proprietary offering in the future, it will do so under a new name,” it said.
Synadia has not indicated whether it will fork the code and use a Business Source License (BSL) in future releases, as it had previously stated.
Derek Collison, CEO of Synadia and the creator of NATS, said: “NATS has been a labor of love of mine for nearly 15 years now. The entire Synadia team and I deeply care about NATS and have devoted significant resources to its growth and adoption. Our commitment remains unwavering – to provide impactful, accessible technology that benefits the global community. We genuinely look forward to deepening our collaboration with the Linux Foundation and CNCF, ensuring all mature and successful projects within the CNCF receive the robust support they need to thrive.
“The outpouring of support from the global community over the past week for NATS to remain a thriving open source project with Synadia’s continued involvement has been extraordinary and deeply appreciated.” ®
