ISRG Accuses Comodo of Illegally Trying to Trademark the "Let's Encrypt" Name

[Exterminator]

The Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) has published an open letter today revealing that Comodo, a security vendor and also one of the biggest Certificate Authorities (CAs) on the Web, is trying to illegally register the "Let's Encrypt" brand as its own.

The Let's Encrypt project started in 2012, but it officially become a business entity in 2014, when one of its creators, the Mozilla Foundation, joined with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Cisco, and Akamai and founded the ISRG non-profit organization.

In a letter on its site, Let's Encrypt administrators revealed that Comodo, one of the project's direct competitors is trying to register the "Let's Encrypt" brand for itself. A successful registration would allow Comodo to force the project to change its name.

Comodo is one of ISRG's direct competitors
Comodo is a company that makes a lot of money by providing digital certificates. The company has recently announced that it topped the charts as the global leader in digital certificates, marking its fifth consecutive quarter to do so.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Let's Encrypt, whose sole purpose is to provide "free" digital certificates in order for site owners to implement HTTPS for their online services. Besides being free as the sky, Let's Encrypt certificates are also very easy to install, at least when compared to the SSL certificates provided by the rest of the market.

"Since March of 2016 we have repeatedly asked Comodo to abandon their 'Let’s Encrypt' applications, directly and through our attorneys, but they have refused to do so," Josh Aas, ISRG Executive Director writes. "We are clearly the first and senior user of “Let’s Encrypt” in relation to Internet security, including SSL/TLS certificates – both in terms of length of use and in terms of the widespread public association of that brand with our organization."

ISRG will fight, in court if it has to
Comodo has filed three trademark registration applications, for the terms: "Let's Encrypt," "Let's Encrypt with Comodo," and "Comodo Let's Encrypt."

ISRG says it will continue to fight for its brand because allowing Comodo to register their name would create confusion on the market. Aas says they worked hard to build their brand as a reliable indicator of quality. As you can imagine, the organization is not willing to back down from a fight and is not in the mood for these types of legal shenannigans.

Yesterday, the Let's Encrypt project announced it issued its five millionth certificate, just seven months after the service became available to the general public.

 

[hjlbx]

LOL... COMODO's attorney performed a Trademark search for "Let's Encrypt" and found neither a prior application nor an existing registration. So ISRG never copyrighted nor registered "Let's Encrypt" as a Trademark.

However, ISRG might have common law rights that supersede COMODO's Trademark registration.

There is no simple, black-and-white formula that the Trademark examiner follows in granting a registration...

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

Right hjlbx,
and it depends on what state Let's Encrypt was founded in weather or not common law will or will not come into play.
But taking into consideration what it was founded for, Let's Encrypt will have documentation dating to before Comodo's
claim so this is a douche move by Comodo based on greed.
PeAcE

 

[jamescv7]

Well definitely a clear concise tactics, its already up to the law and honestly it will just go through common sense when double or triple same name registered without any justifiable reasons.

Comodo indeed a good company however it mitigates the allegation that can lead to downfall.