[rectang]

> I appreciate any feedback!

Please don't use a name which is confusingly similar to an existing product (i.e. infringes on someone else's trademark). Open source communities have enough to deal with already without having to allocate scarce volunteer hours to working out legal issues.

[willwade]

I was thinking of “Persistent uniform resource locator” but then realised I think you are referring to the python library https://github.com/codeinthehole/purl (I get your argument although I quite like this new project. It’s closer to “Perl” in my mind. But then I am nearly 50..)

[rectang]

I'm referring to Perl, which is another product in the same market (unixy command line applications) and has the same pronunciation.

https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search/likelihood-confusion

> Trademarks don’t have to be identical to be confusingly similar. Instead, they could just be similar in sound, appearance, or meaning, or could create a similar commercial impression. Here are examples of trademarks that were found to be confusingly similar.

> These trademarks are confusingly similar because they could be pronounced the same way, even though they’re spelled differently.

> Your mark -- T. Markey

> Conflicting mark -- Tee Marquee

[dmd]

From your phrasing here, it sounds like you think the OP is unaware of Perl, which is odd, considering they mention it in their very first sentence.

[rectang]

To clarify: I had read that passage, and I was definitely aware that the name could be interpreted as a reference.

Trademark conflicts in open store sometimes start that way. For example, “CouchBase” was a reference to “CouchDB” — it was originally a complementary effort, but later became a competitor. By the time the CouchDB folks realized that they should’ve been enforcing their trademark, it was too late.

[mnsc]

How will you even talk about this?

"can you install purl on the server so we can filter these logs?"

"do you mean the one with an e or the one with the u?"

Also, based on the name, I was half guessing this was going to be a slot in replacement to curl.

[pledess]

Another name conflict is with https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec - which is used for software identification (e.g., see the https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/Software-Id... report).

[er4hn]

This was actually my first thought. This will confuse many people in the cybersec community.

[sigzero]

Nah, that doesn't really work any more and it isn't really worth the cycles to try. Also, there are no legal issues with "Purl".

[rectang]

Whether or not there are "legal issues" with "Purl" being confusingly similar to "Perl" would be up the judgement of a court, should it come to that.

Mostly, when there are other open source projects whose names conflict with your trademark you ask nicely and people change the name. That's the path I'm hoping to guide the OP down — please just have some sympathy for your fellow open source developers!

Occasionally, trademark conflicts in open source become high stakes, painful affairs. For example, with the last few years, there was the "Commons Clause" situation (where among other issues "Apache License Version 2 with Commons Clause" infringed upon the "Apache" trademark owned by the ASF.)

This is unlikely to become a problem with a solo personal project unless it gains sustained traction. But I think it's valid feedback to offer, because if you have ambitions for your open source project you are eventually going to have to deal with trademarks.