A hot potato: JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages in the world and a cornerstone of the modern web. JavaScript is also "owned" by Oracle. However, that could soon change with an effort from the JS community to free the trademark from the clutches of Larry Ellison's corporation.
Some prominent figures in the JavaScript community have formally asked the USPTO to cancel Oracle's ownership of the "JavaScript" trademark. Sun Microsystems applied for the original trademark after developing the language. Oracle came under ownership when it acquired Sun in 1997. However, Oracle has made no valuable contributions to JavaScript and allegedly committed fraud when it renewed the trademark a few years ago.
The USPTO petition was filed by Deno Land, the organization that manages the namesake Deno runtime for JavaScript, TypeScript, and WebAssembly. Two months ago, Node.js creator Ryan Dahl and JavaScript creator Brendan Eich, together with other members of the JS community, authored an open letter asking Oracle to abandon its JavaScript trademark.
The formal petition filed with the USPTO came after more than 14,000 people had signed the open letter. Dahl said the petition is a pivotal step to freeing JavaScript from baseless legal entanglements, recognizing that the programming language is now a public good that a single entity like Oracle cannot own.
It's done. Now it's your turn, @Oracle.
– Deno (@deno_land) November 25, 2024
We've submitted a formal petition to cancel the JavaScript trademark: it is generic, Oracle has abandoned it, and Oracle committed fraud on the USPTO during the last trademark renewal.
Oracle has until January 4th to respond, or the...
Three claims form the basis of the petition. The first is that JavaScript has become genericized. JavaScript is the universal name adopted by developers for the ECMAScript standard, used by millions of people worldwide independently of Oracle.
"By law, trademarks that have become generic cannot remain trademarks," Dahl said.
The second is that Oracle committed fraud when re-applying for the trademark in 2019. Deno claims Oracle used screenshots of Node.js, a JS project that has nothing to do with Oracle, as evidence for JavaScript's commercial use.
Finally, the petition claims that Oracle abandoned the trademark by not selling any meaningful product or service based on JavaScript. Thus, the company has abandoned the trademark.
Oracle has until January 4, 2025, to respond to the filing. Dahl hopes Oracle will choose to relinquish its trademark peacefully. If Oracle decides to go to war, Deno and others in the JS community are ready to fight in court with a "wealth of evidence" proving Oracle has legally lost its right to ownership.