Think again.
As I said, bad vendors *will* do this.
We need to design into the application that they opt out on
these rights in order to use the trademark. Disclaimer of
any and all liability related to it.
There are other scenarios to worry about also. But if you
yank these rights at the application process, then it's fair.
Ultimately, it's about trust. I trust the IETF to be fair
to the industry as a whole.
Just stuff away 50% of the application fees into a mutual fund
for a trademark legal defense fund.
The legal challenge issue is a very serious one, but it is fully
manageable. If you are smart enough to think of what a badly
behaving vendor can do, just add it to the application, and opt
them out of that right.
Kyle Lussier
AutoNOC LLC