USPTO petitioned to cancel Oracle’s JavaScript trademark

Deno Land, maker of the Deno runtime for JavaScript, has petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel Oracle’s ownership of the JavaScript trademark. The petition argues that Oracle has abandoned the trademark, because it has not sold any JavaScript goods or rendered any JavaScript services since acquiring the trademark from Sun Microsystems in 2009.

The petition was filed with the USTO November 22. The petition follows a September open letter by Node.js and Deno creator Ryan Dahl, JavaScript creator Brendan Eich, and several other leading members of the JavaScript community that asked Oracle to relinquish the trademark. The letter has drawn more than 14,000 signatures.

Oracle has owned the JavaScript trademark since its 2009 acquisition of Sun Microsystem. However, the company has played no active role in JavaScript’s development or ecosystem, Dahl said in a November 25 blog post. “Our aim is for Oracle to recognize this as a clear case of trademark abandonment and let the cancellation proceed uncontested,” Dahl said in an email. “However, should they choose to fight, we’re fully prepared to present overwhelming evidence that ‘JavaScript’ is a generic term, widely used by developers and organizations without any association with Oracle.”

Calling the trademark ownership an “outdated legal relic,” Dahl said Oracle’s ownership “has caused confusion and unnecessary barriers, including cease-and-desist letters sent to organizations for simply using the term ‘JavaScript’ in their names.” The USPTO filing marks a pivotal step toward freeing the JavaScript name from legal entanglements, Dahl said.

If the name is freed, conferences could use the name JavaScript without concerns of legal overreach. The language’s development specification name, ECMAScript, could be replaced by the name JavaScript, said Dahl.

The petition to the USPTO also accuses Oracle of committing fraud in 2019 in its renewal efforts for the trademark by submitting screen captures of the Node.js website. “Node.js is not affiliated with Oracle, and the use of screen captures of the ‘nodejs.org’ website as a specimen did not show any use of the mark by Oracle or on behalf of Oracle,” the petition states. Additionally, the petition stresses that the term JavaScript is generic and that Oracle does not control, and has never controlled, any aspect of the specification or how the term JavaScript can be used by others. Oracle, which has until January 4, 2025 to respond to the USPTO petition, could not be reached for comment.

”Today, millions of companies, universities, academics, and programmers, including Petitioner, use ‘JavaScript’ daily without any involvement with Oracle,” the petition states. “The phrase ‘JavaScript’ does not belong to one corporation. It belongs to the public.” Oracle’s ownership of the trademark creates marketplace confusion, hinders accurate marketing, and obstructs collaboration in the JavaScript community, the petition maintains.