[orra]

There's no legal ramification of changing their name. Companies change their names every so often; it doesn't erase their legal rights or obligations.

Technical? Not sure what huge problems they are, but as a Software Foundation you'd think they'd be well placed to deal with the issues.

Financial? That may be true, but it costs less if you do it as part of the one branding refresh.

[singleshot_]

If you change the name of your company without informing the bank, your creditors, your secured creditors, your shareholders, the state corporation commission, and your firms statutory agent, you will run into some legal problems quickly.

The legal ramifications of changing your name is a ton of documentation, notification, and registration.

[orra]

You're not really describing that much effort in the scheme of things: make a filing and notify several parties. Annual accounts are a far bigger burden, and they have to be done.

[singleshot_]

Would you say there are “no legal ramifications,” or that there are legal ramifications that don’t constitute “that much effort”? I’m left a little unclear from your posts.

[orra]

Ramification implies adverse unwarranted complexity. There are no ramifications, just a few straightforward requirements.

[rectang]

Just because the ASF's officers won't go to jail for changing the name doesn't mean there aren't any legal ramifications. Trademarks are a legal issue, for starters. Defending the Foundation's trademarks is a big part of what goes on, even if most of that work is done quietly and non-confrontationally.

Technical issues would involve for example the apache.org domain, and all the security issues from decades worth of links pointing to it.

[orra]

A domain rewrite permanent redirect is pretty straightforward.