I'm posting this on behalf of Richard Petti of Macsyma, Inc. --mark
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 20:11-0500
From: Richard Petti <·····@NEWTON.Macsyma.COM>
Subject: Macsyma and Maxima
Recently it has come to the attention of Macsyma Inc. that various
mathematical software is being distributed under the name of "Maxima." I
have been requested to clarify the various rights surrounding the software
and the trademarks.
1. Software copyrights to derivatives of M.I.T.'s Macsyma
Macsyma Inc. and several other companies (such as Paradigm and Fort Pond
Research) have licensed the original software from M.I.T. The U.S.
Department of Energy has the right to license copies of its derivative of the
M.I.T. software. To my knowledge, these are the only organizations which can
license software derivatives of the M.I.T. Macsyma code. These software
packages are definitively not public domain software.
Some parties distribute derivatives of M.I.T.'s Macsyma software by ftp.
Users of this software are required by law to first obtain a license from
D.O.E. or one of the commercial licensees, then use the ftp'able software as
enhancements. While Macsyma Inc. reserves the right to enforce these
restrictions, we have not chosen to interfere with use of derivative sources
by researchers.
Historically, this situation arose from disputes in the U.S. over the
commercialization of partially-government-funded academic research.
Various U.S. governmental orders in the mid-1980's affirmed the rights of
universities to license such research results.
We feel that academic-government-commercial collaboration is essential to an
efficient technology development and diffusion, and we are eager to work with
qualified parties to develop and commercialize scientific software. We have
incorporated numerous pieces of academic software in the past 1.7 years,
including ODELIN2 (Shunro Watanabe on ODE's), extended inverse Laplace
transforms (Michael Clarkson), PDELIE (Peter Vafeades on Lie symmetries and
solutions of PDE's), with more such enhancements in the pipeline.
2. The name "Macsyma"
The name "Macsyma" is a registered trademark of Macsyma Inc. in the U.S. and
other major countries. Macsyma Inc. inherits an agreement from Symbolics
Inc. permitting the D.O.E. to use the name "D.O.E. Macsyma." No other entity
has the right to use the name Macsyma or closely similar names in the
distribution of mathematical software. Some parties who distribute
derivatives of M.I.T. Macsyma use names such as "Paramax" and "Aljabar;"
these names are not in conflict with the registered trademark "Macsyma."
The name "Maxima" is considered by Macsyma Inc. to be an infringement of the
Macsyma trademark, though we have refrained from legal action. We request
that (1) distributors of such software alter the names of their software and
(2) information sources which list software packages not to list mathematical
software which uses this name.
Trademarks serves several useful purposes: (1) they help users easily and
reliably distinguish products and information, and (2) they help suppliers to
gain recognition by users with a minimum of confusion.
I hope this helps clarify the situation.
Richard Petti
President
Macsyma Inc.
20 Academy Street
Arlington, MA 02174-6436
tel: 617-646-4550
fax: 617-646-3161
email: ·····@macsyma.com