JSecurity to Ki Name Change Feedback

[Les Hazlewood <lh...@apache.org>]

Hi everyone,

I'm a member of the Incubator podling project formerly known as JSecurity,
now called Ki.  We had debated and discussed and researched at great length
for I think about 4 or 5 months on the new name and then all voted to change
the name and the vote passed.  However, we have come across something that
might be of concern, and we'd all like to receive your feedback about it.

The reasons for the name change, as well as the meaning of Ki (Japanese
character which can mean 'fortress' or 'castle' - good for a security
framework) are documented clearly on the old jsecurity.org announcement page
here:

http://www.jsecurity.org/node/1081

The reply to that announcement is what we'd like feedback on:

"Hi, I wanted to inform you guys that we are already using the name 'Ki' in
a software product for the financial industry for the past several years,
including the cool Asian looking logo (
http://www.fixflyer.com/html-files/KiCertification.html). Our position is
that the introduction of a new security product with the same name and
similar branding would be confusing to current and future customers, so we
would expect that a new name be selected.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss this in more detail"

I myself made a reply to this comment to state that:

1) Our project is in an entirely different domain (ours is application
security, theirs is financial industry related), and therefore shouldn't be
cause for legal conflict and
2) There is no 'asian looking logo' anywhere that I can find based on the
referenced site.  We don't even have or want an 'asian looking logo'.

Also, I should note that the individual who replied (and his company) do not
have any Trademarks or Patents filed under the name Ki.

Could you please give us some feedback as to if you believe this is cause
for us to search for a new name (again)?  Also note that because there is no
Trademark filed for 'Ki', I would be willing to file one on behalf of the
ASF if that should be a deciding factor.

Thanks for your feedback!

Best Regards,

Les