O'Reilly Radar this morning has a post defending their service mark protection of the term "Web 2.0" from use by other events, but says it went about it all wrong with IT@Cork and will not object to the Irish non-profit's use of the term this year. The post concedes that they have gone about this matter all wrong.
The post was signed by "Brady" who made clear that Tim O'Reilly is on vacation this week and not involved at all.
This resolves the immediate issue of what happens in Ireland on June 8, except that now I have to revise my revision of my revised PowerPoint presentation due today.
The bigger issue is what is their expectation of the use of the term overall. If I used "Web 2.0" as a term in my book or title, for example, would they come after me? If another conference has a panel or speaker discussing "Web 2.0?" what is the O'Reilly-CMP intention?
It seems to me, this action has managed to insert confusion where none was needed. I do "Web 2.0" is a lame and inaccurate term and the industry would be wise to just adopt "social media" and let the lawyers and producers go off muttering to themselves.
