[chrisseaton]

> the OSI is the group which invented the term "open source"

This isn’t true. They used an existing term. Have you ever wondered why it’s not a trademark to protect it? They weren’t able to trademark because it was an existing descriptive term.

The OSI don’t own ‘open source’.

[xorcist]

This is complete revisionism. The OSI set out to create a new term, one that they could trademark and would otherwise match the meaning and intention of "free software".

They may have failed in the end, for a numer of reasons, but they were very rigorous in their search of prior usage and very open about their work. We can speculate in retrospect about what could have done differently, but saying they used an existing term is wrong both in intent and in practice.

[ddevault]

It's not a trademark because they didn't apply for one. They regret this. The origin of the term is well documented: OSI did invent it. To argue otherwise is historical revisionism.

[chrisseaton]

I'm afraid you're either mistaken, or you're trying to revise history yourself.

> It's not a trademark because they didn't apply for one.

Not true!

They were applying. It wasn't working, so they gave up, and it lapsed.

Source:

https://opensource.org/pressreleases/certified-open-source.p...

"OSI's application for an Open Source trademark had lapsed"

Why did they let it lapse? Because (as they knew) it wasn't trademarkable as it's a simple generic descriptive term.

"We have discovered that there is virtually no chance that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would register the mark "open source"; the mark is too descriptive."

> The origin of the term is well documented: OSI did invent it.

Not true!

See the links the my sibling commented posted for prior specific examples of 'open source software'.

And of course 'open source' is just a normal phrase that's been in use for much much longer! That's why they can't trademark - it's just a normal phrase people were already using.

[gpm]

It's also worth reading the OSI's launch announcement, which is very focused on the trademark https://web.archive.org/web/20000408035603/http://opensource...

The trademark is front and center in their (original) mission statement:

> The Open Source Initiative's mission will be to own and defend the Open Source trademark, to manage the www.opensource.org resources, to develop branding programs attractive to software customers and producers, and to advance the cause of open-source software and serve the hacker community in other appropriate ways.

[gpm]

No, it's well documented that the term was in use referring to "source available" software before they claim to have invented it. It might be a case of two groups coming up with the same term, but they were not the first.

[0] The OSI claims to have coined the term in 1988 https://opensource.com/article/18/2/coining-term-open-source...

[1] Here is a use of the term, 7 times, and as the main object, from 1996 http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/fall96/0269.html

[2] Here is a use of the term, as a proper noun, from 1993 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.os.ms-windows.pro...