Hi,
I just heard a talk from Matthew Excell from Possiblity Forge at SCALE. Amoung the things that he said were
OpenEMR is moving to Java for its next version.
OpenEMR is not currently using FreeB for its billing engine, but instead another GPL system.
The new version of OpenEMR will have an LGPL "layer" to connect to proprietary modules.
Can anyone confirm or deny these statements?
Regards,
Fred Trotter
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Rod, has anyone previously registered OpenEMR as a trademark, and would such a registration (presumably in conflict with another action by PossibilityForge) possibly result in hearing where the lengthy history of OpenEMR as an active GPL project could win trademark protection?
IANAL. Or a Software Developer, but the Thread is in *this* forum and I just wondered about it (after having read Fred's item at linuxmednews.com).
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But it appears to me that the name OpenEMR has been used for quite some time without a trademark being claimed. So I would guess that if someone wanted a trademark for it, it would have to include their own distinctive stylistic elements, and would not impact what we're doing.
Rod
www.sunsetsystems.com
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This does not surprise me. In fact, I have been anticipating this turn of events.
PossibilityForge bought the web site “openemr.net” from Walt Pennington about year or so ago. It has been clear that they have been planning this for some time. Since PossibilityForge uses Java as their primary coding tool all of the pronouncements that you have discussed follow logically from what PossibilityForge is.
While it is quite possible for PossibilityForge to use the OpenEMR name, this company and its developers are not in any way associated with the OpenEMR project at SourceForge.
For this company to state:
“OpenEMR is moving to Java for its next version.”
“OpenEMR is not currently using FreeB for its billing engine, but instead another GPL system.”
“The new version of OpenEMR will have an LGPL "layer" to connect to proprietary modules.”
In my opinion is simply not true. The PossibilityForge has created a new product that they want to market using the the OpenEMR name. The current OpenEMR project at SourceForge has no intention of moving to Java. Neither are SorceForge OpenEMR developers intending to privatize any OpenEMR code as stated above.
The fact is that there are three organizations that are now using the name OpenEMR for 3 separate projects. The Open Source Community that use the SourceForge project name “OpenEMR” which is supported by Rod Roark, Tekkno Genius, myself and others. Synitech has the “Synitech Incorporated OpenEMR”. The PossibilityForge owns the openemr.net site and has a new “fork” with the same name.
The PossibilityForge is attempting to “privatize” the name OpenEMR and more or less take the brandname recognition without asking. The original creator of the name OpenEMR is Synitech and they have never made any attempt to defend defend OpenEMR as a branded product.
For PossibilityForge to switch to “LGPL” licensing means they want to sell the code that they are writing. This is a significant departure from the “Open” spirit of the existing SourceForge OpenEMR Community by th PossibilityForge company.
So. I have been anticipating this since Walt's sale of the openemr.net web page and after investigating what PossibilityForge is about. This is clearly what they have been planning since they negotiated the purchase of openemr.net.
What, PossibilityForge plans to release is not “the next version” of OpenEMR but a separate product that is being developed behind closed doors with no attempt at openess. In fact, they appear to be planning to use more restrictive closed licensing. The General Gnu Public Licensing used by our project is intentionally open.
Sincerely,
Sam Bowen, MD
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“Openemr” was originally created by Synitech, Inc in 1999. Synitech still uses the name openemr on their site as the “Synitech Incorporated OpenEMR”. I do not believe that Synitech has ever done anything to establish openemr as a tradename or as a trademark. They certainly have not defended it and as such, “openemr”, appears to be in the public domain.
OpenEMR was established as a separate project at SourceForge by Walt Penington August 13, 2002. Since that time there have been over 12,000 downloads of the OpenEMR software.
Currently, the SourceForge project OpenEMR is being maintained by Rod Roark, Andres Paglayan, Tekkno Genius, myself and many others who participate in these forums. There are other separately maintained forks: “Synitech Incorporated OpenEMR”, “Pennington Firm OpenEMR”, and now PossibiltyForge appears to be about to introduce another fork.
When I first became involved with OpenEMR, I contacted Synitech by e-mail. I did receive a nice e-mail or two from one of the developers and then the president of the company. The develop finally responded that he was not permitted to communicate with me further (per official internal policy). Synitech actively steered me towards Walt Pennington's web site as the maintainers of the OpenEMR code base and user support.
This indicated to me that Synitech at that time believed that Walt Pennington's firm was capable of at least providing support for the project that Synitech did not want to provide. They did not in anyway give an indication that Walt Pennington's use of the OpenEMR name was inappropriate. Synitech did indicate that they had continued their own development of the OpenEMR code.
Walt Pennington transferred the OpenEMR code to SourceForge for this project and its maintainers to continue development. This occurred (if my memory serves me) March 8-9, 2005. Since that time the members of this forum and the developers listed on the summary pages have been the active developers and maintainers of the OpenEMR code base.
Walt Pennington does chip in from time to time in these forums but has not been an active member of the project since moving the files to SourceForge. Walt Pennington has not interfered or tried to restrict our use of the name “OpenEMR”.
I don't believe anyone can make OpenEMR a tradename given that Synitech never defended it to start with. As Rod states making a different trademark with different colors containing the word OpenEMR is probably permissible.
Sam Bowen, MD
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Hi,
I just heard a talk from Matthew Excell from Possiblity Forge at SCALE. Amoung the things that he said were
OpenEMR is moving to Java for its next version.
OpenEMR is not currently using FreeB for its billing engine, but instead another GPL system.
The new version of OpenEMR will have an LGPL "layer" to connect to proprietary modules.
Can anyone confirm or deny these statements?
Regards,
Fred Trotter
I have not heard any of this before, and as far as I know nobody has talked to any of the developers here about it.
Sounds like someone needs to come up with their own project name, instead of ripping off ours.
Rod
www.sunsetsystems.com
Rod, has anyone previously registered OpenEMR as a trademark, and would such a registration (presumably in conflict with another action by PossibilityForge) possibly result in hearing where the lengthy history of OpenEMR as an active GPL project could win trademark protection?
IANAL. Or a Software Developer, but the Thread is in *this* forum and I just wondered about it (after having read Fred's item at linuxmednews.com).
Dunno, IANAL either. :-)
But it appears to me that the name OpenEMR has been used for quite some time without a trademark being claimed. So I would guess that if someone wanted a trademark for it, it would have to include their own distinctive stylistic elements, and would not impact what we're doing.
Rod
www.sunsetsystems.com
This does not surprise me. In fact, I have been anticipating this turn of events.
PossibilityForge bought the web site “openemr.net” from Walt Pennington about year or so ago. It has been clear that they have been planning this for some time. Since PossibilityForge uses Java as their primary coding tool all of the pronouncements that you have discussed follow logically from what PossibilityForge is.
While it is quite possible for PossibilityForge to use the OpenEMR name, this company and its developers are not in any way associated with the OpenEMR project at SourceForge.
For this company to state:
“OpenEMR is moving to Java for its next version.”
“OpenEMR is not currently using FreeB for its billing engine, but instead another GPL system.”
“The new version of OpenEMR will have an LGPL "layer" to connect to proprietary modules.”
In my opinion is simply not true. The PossibilityForge has created a new product that they want to market using the the OpenEMR name. The current OpenEMR project at SourceForge has no intention of moving to Java. Neither are SorceForge OpenEMR developers intending to privatize any OpenEMR code as stated above.
The fact is that there are three organizations that are now using the name OpenEMR for 3 separate projects. The Open Source Community that use the SourceForge project name “OpenEMR” which is supported by Rod Roark, Tekkno Genius, myself and others. Synitech has the “Synitech Incorporated OpenEMR”. The PossibilityForge owns the openemr.net site and has a new “fork” with the same name.
The PossibilityForge is attempting to “privatize” the name OpenEMR and more or less take the brandname recognition without asking. The original creator of the name OpenEMR is Synitech and they have never made any attempt to defend defend OpenEMR as a branded product.
For PossibilityForge to switch to “LGPL” licensing means they want to sell the code that they are writing. This is a significant departure from the “Open” spirit of the existing SourceForge OpenEMR Community by th PossibilityForge company.
So. I have been anticipating this since Walt's sale of the openemr.net web page and after investigating what PossibilityForge is about. This is clearly what they have been planning since they negotiated the purchase of openemr.net.
What, PossibilityForge plans to release is not “the next version” of OpenEMR but a separate product that is being developed behind closed doors with no attempt at openess. In fact, they appear to be planning to use more restrictive closed licensing. The General Gnu Public Licensing used by our project is intentionally open.
Sincerely,
Sam Bowen, MD
In brief, I agree with Rod.
“Openemr” was originally created by Synitech, Inc in 1999. Synitech still uses the name openemr on their site as the “Synitech Incorporated OpenEMR”. I do not believe that Synitech has ever done anything to establish openemr as a tradename or as a trademark. They certainly have not defended it and as such, “openemr”, appears to be in the public domain.
OpenEMR was established as a separate project at SourceForge by Walt Penington August 13, 2002. Since that time there have been over 12,000 downloads of the OpenEMR software.
Currently, the SourceForge project OpenEMR is being maintained by Rod Roark, Andres Paglayan, Tekkno Genius, myself and many others who participate in these forums. There are other separately maintained forks: “Synitech Incorporated OpenEMR”, “Pennington Firm OpenEMR”, and now PossibiltyForge appears to be about to introduce another fork.
When I first became involved with OpenEMR, I contacted Synitech by e-mail. I did receive a nice e-mail or two from one of the developers and then the president of the company. The develop finally responded that he was not permitted to communicate with me further (per official internal policy). Synitech actively steered me towards Walt Pennington's web site as the maintainers of the OpenEMR code base and user support.
This indicated to me that Synitech at that time believed that Walt Pennington's firm was capable of at least providing support for the project that Synitech did not want to provide. They did not in anyway give an indication that Walt Pennington's use of the OpenEMR name was inappropriate. Synitech did indicate that they had continued their own development of the OpenEMR code.
Walt Pennington transferred the OpenEMR code to SourceForge for this project and its maintainers to continue development. This occurred (if my memory serves me) March 8-9, 2005. Since that time the members of this forum and the developers listed on the summary pages have been the active developers and maintainers of the OpenEMR code base.
Walt Pennington does chip in from time to time in these forums but has not been an active member of the project since moving the files to SourceForge. Walt Pennington has not interfered or tried to restrict our use of the name “OpenEMR”.
I don't believe anyone can make OpenEMR a tradename given that Synitech never defended it to start with. As Rod states making a different trademark with different colors containing the word OpenEMR is probably permissible.
Sam Bowen, MD