andygrove commented on issue #5291: URL: https://github.com/apache/datafusion-comet/issues/5291#issuecomment-5241131185
Following up on the JIRA feedback that the search needs to focus on **Nice class 9 (goods: software)** rather than class 42 (services), I redid the register searches for class 9. Note that the mark we would be asserting is **"Apache Comet"**, not bare "Comet", so I have also pulled the ASF's own class 9 portfolio for comparison. # Raw facts ## Method Data pulled programmatically on 2026-08-10: - **USPTO**: the Trademark Search backend (`tmsearch.uspto.gov/prod-v1-0-0/tmsearch`). Query: wordmark contains "comet" AND `internationalClass = IC 009` AND live. **76 live records.** - **EUIPO**: TMview (`tmdn.org`), office `EM`, Nice class 9, name contains "comet". **64 records** not expired or ended. Goods text taken from the per-mark detail record. - **WIPO / Madrid**: TMview, office `WO`, same filters. **37 records.** Between a third and a half of the hits in each register are pure hardware (X-ray tubes, welding gear, work gloves, antennas, sensors, fireworks igniters, spectacles) and are omitted below. Bare word marks "COMET" in class 9: 16 at USPTO, 17 at EUIPO, 11 at WIPO. The rest are compounds. **There are zero marks anywhere in the searched registers containing both "Apache" and "Comet".** ## United States, class 9 Bare "COMET", live, covering software: | Serial | Owner | Status | Class 9 goods | |---|---|---|---| | 74191587 (reg 1810504) | University Corporation for Atmospheric Research | Registered and renewed, filed 1991 | Computer software, printed documentation, tapes and CDs containing meteorological training and educational information, sold as a unit | | 76383526 (reg 2839029) | C/HCA, Inc. | Registered and renewed, filed 2002 | Medical care outcome reporting software for the healthcare industry | | 99291909 | Innovaccer Inc. | Pending, action continuing final | Downloadable AI software for scheduling, intake and communication in healthcare, expressly excluding hosting and maintaining software for others for collaboratively developing and tracking machine learning models | | 99396066 | Perplexity AI, Inc. | Pending | Computer application software for mobile phones, handheld computers, tablets; cross-platform browsing software | | 99396072 | Perplexity AI, Inc. | Pending | Computer browsing software; computer software for providing access to the internet | The other live bare-COMET class 9 US registrations are hardware: antennas (Wilson Electronics), photoelectric sensors (Eaton), work gloves, X-ray apparatus (COMET AG / Comet Holding AG), tissue analyzers (Lunaphore), gas sensors (Miltope), phone cases (Comet Tech), satellite components (Apex Technology, filed 2026-07-13). Compound COMET marks in class 9 touching data, infrastructure or developer software: | Mark | Serial | Owner | Class 9 goods | |---|---|---|---| | COMETBFT | 79368496 (reg 7394268) | Interchain Foundation | Downloadable communications and computer software in the field of distributed systems infrastructure, for recording and validating changes to records and enabling distributed computing | | COMET BACKUP | 99707435 | Comet Licensing Limited (NZ) | Software for backup solutions; software for data security; software for data transfer; on-premise software | | BITCOMET | 78932292, 78909539 | BitComet, Inc. | Peer-to-peer networking and file sharing software; software for searching and retrieving information, files and documents on a computer network | | SINCOMETA | 98078833 (reg 7454867) | Aimedical Limited | Downloadable computer software platforms for application development, web hosting, database management; recorded computer programs for database management | | ARAMCOMETABRAIN | 99135148 | Saudi Arabian Oil Company | Downloadable AI software for natural language processing and machine-learning-based data processing | | ECOMET | 85132598 (reg 4317536) | Parsons Corporation | Software for collection, recording and analysis of energy data | | H/COMET | 86187337 (reg 4666070) | Haverly Systems | Software for evaluating crude oil value, directed solely at the crude oil market | | METACOMET | 78882459 (reg 3274904) | Metacomet Systems | Software automating rights, royalty and revenue tracking | | OS/COMET, OS COMET | 75221401, 75490288 | Software Technology, Inc. / Peraton | Satellite ground station and telemetry processing software | | MCOMET | 85048827 (reg 3907356) | Systems Engineering Associates | Command, telemetry and real-time test monitoring software for aerospace | Remaining class 9 software hits are games (COMET WILDS, COMETSIDE, COMETSTAR, MIA'S COMET, BRAVE COMET), payments and crypto (COMET CASH, COMET PAY, ORANGE COMET), dating (COMET DATING), VPN (COMETVPN) and medical imaging (DICOMETRIX, GLUCOMETRICS). **Comet ML, Inc. has no US class 9 filing at all.** Its US portfolio is class 42 only (COMET 87891673, COMET.ML 87891687, both live, both having been through TTAB cancellation proceedings that were terminated). It does police the name: the Innovaccer class 9 application above carries an express exclusion clause reproducing Comet ML's class 42 recitation nearly verbatim. ## European Union (EUIPO), class 9 | Mark | Filing | Owner | Status | Class 9 goods | |---|---|---|---|---| | COMET | 018820339 | COMET GROUP (FR) | **Registered**, filed 2023-01-09 | Downloadable software applications; computer software platforms, recorded or downloadable; **Software**; artificial intelligence software; **computer software for database management; databases (electronic)**; file sharing software; collaborative software; content management software; e-payment software. Only exclusions are freelancer-matching goods and dating apps | | COMET | 019160198 | Comet ML, Inc. | **Application opposed** | Artificial intelligence and machine learning software; artificial intelligence software | | COMET | 019185467 | Perplexity AI, Inc. | **Application opposed** | Very broad: "Computer software", AI and agentic AI software, browsing software, search engine software, software for sharing data over computer networks | | COMET | 018426171 | RHEA System SA | **Application refused** | Software; Collaboration software | | COMET | 008258717 | Nexant, Inc. | Registered | Computer application software for statistical computation, modelling and analysis of electric power generation and transmission networks | | i-COMET | 008258758 | Nexant, Inc. | Registered | Same as above | | COMET | 019341404 | Pavić, Ivica | Application published | Software and computer software for document, file, process and project management, all solely in the sports sector | | CDP4 COMET | 019115068 | Starion Group SA | Registered | Software; Application software; Product engineering software; Collaboration software | | Comet Backup | 019253562 | Comet Licensing Limited | Registered | Software for backup solutions, data security, data transfer; on-premise software | | Sincometa | 018840027 | Aimedical Limited | Registered | Computer software platforms, downloadable; computer programs; data processing apparatus | | Cometa | 019271088 | ENAIRE (ES) | Registered | Software for registering, collecting, compiling, recording, storing, retrieving, managing, evaluating, analysing and processing data; database synchronisation software | | Comets of Web3 | 018968157 | DIGITAL SUNDAY SRL | Registered | Blockchain software; Software; Application software; web application and server software | | COMET PLAY | 018041646, 018041653 | ANALYTICOM d.o.o. | Registered | Software; computer software for document, process and project management | | PAYCOMET / PayComet | 018909455, 018008340 | PAYCOMET S.L.U. | Registered | Payment software | | ARAMCOMETABRAIN | 019312928 | Saudi Aramco | Registered | AI and data processing software | ## WIPO / Madrid, class 9 | Mark | IR | Owner | Status | Relevance | |---|---|---|---|---| | COMET | 1889619 | Perplexity AI, Inc. | Registered 2025-09-17 | Browsing and application software. Vehicle for extending the Perplexity COMET mark into further jurisdictions | | CometBFT | 1726890 | Interchain Foundation | Registered | Distributed systems infrastructure software | | CometVPN | 1803688 | UAB "Simoresta" | Registered | VPN client software, data processing apparatus | | ICOMETRIX | 1119678 | icoMetrix NV | Registered | Biomedical image and database software | | SPRECOMETRO WASTEMETER | 1726239 | Andrea Segrè | Registered | Application and server software | | Comète | 1367132 | Frontbox | Registered | Game software | | COMET family | 1050483, 1545873, 1516993, 1781013, 1794948 | COMET AG | Registered | X-ray and plasma hardware, not software | ## The ASF's own class 9 portfolio, for comparison The ASF owns **50 live US trademark registrations, 47 of which cover class 9**: ACCUMULO, ACTIVEMQ, AIRFLOW, APACHE, APACHE BEAM, APACHE IGNITE, APISIX, BIGTOP, BROOKLYN, CASSANDRA, CLOUDSTACK, COUCHDB, CTAKES, DOLPHINSCHEDULER, DRUID, FINERACT, FLEX, FLINK, FREEMARKER, GRAILS, GROOVY, GUACAMOLE, HADOOP, HAWQ, HBASE, IMPALA, KAFKA, LOG4J, LUCENE, MADLIB, MANIFOLDCF, MESOS, NUTTX, OFBIZ, OPENDAL, OPENOFFICE, OPENWHISK, PDFBOX, SERVICECOMB, SERVICEMIX, SUBVERSION, SUPERSET, TEZ, TOMCAT. Two of those are registered in the "APACHE X" composite form, and both are in the same technical space as Comet: - **APACHE BEAM**, serial 97229237, reg 6930943, filed 2022-01-20, registered 2022-12-20. IC 009: "Downloadable opensource computer software development kit for providing a unified programming model for programming a distributed system for parallel computation and batch computation." - **APACHE IGNITE**, serial 87958522, reg 5906296, filed 2018-06-12, registered 2019-11-12. IC 009: "Downloadable computer software for database management and for network, mobile app, website, and Internet of Things (IoT) application and database integration providing in-memory computing functionality." The ASF holds **no** registration for SPARK or ARROW, and relies on common law use of "Apache Spark" and "Apache Arrow". How crowded class 9 is at the USPTO for various ASF project names (live marks whose wordmark contains the token): | Term | Live US class 9 marks | |---|---| | spark | 164 | | beam | 94 | | arrow | 64 | | **comet** | **42** | | airflow | 16 | | iceberg | 5 | | flink | 4 | | kafka | 3 | | druid | 3 | | superset | 2 | # Analysis and opinion **1. "Comet" is a less crowded class 9 name than several names the ASF already uses successfully.** Spark, Beam and Arrow all have substantially more live class 9 marks than Comet does, and all three are in active, prominent, uncontested use by the ASF in exactly the same data-processing segment. Beam in particular is the on-point precedent: 94 live class 9 marks contain "beam", and the ASF still obtained a registration for APACHE BEAM in class 9 covering a distributed parallel and batch computation SDK, in eleven months. APACHE IGNITE is even closer, since its class 9 recitation is "software for database management ... providing in-memory computing functionality", which is essentially what Comet is, and it registered and reached incontestability without apparent difficulty. **2. The house mark matters, and the searches confirm the composite is clear.** No mark in any of the three registers contains both "Apache" and "Comet". The ASF's asserted mark would be the composite, used consistently as "Apache Comet" with the standard branding, in a segment where the "Apache" prefix is itself a well known source indicator for open source infrastructure. That is the same posture as Apache Spark against 164 class 9 SPARK marks. It does not eliminate risk, but it is the ordinary ASF risk profile rather than an unusual one. **3. The US class 9 field is genuinely open for our goods.** No live US class 9 registration on bare COMET covers general purpose data processing, query engines, analytics or developer tooling. The two live software registrations are narrow field: meteorology training materials from 1991 and healthcare outcome reporting from 2002. The two pending bare-COMET applications are for web browsers (Perplexity) and healthcare AI (Innovaccer). Notably, the class 42 conflicts I flagged earlier (Affinity Solutions, Comet Informatics, HaystackID) have no class 9 filings at all, and neither does Comet ML. Moving the analysis from class 42 to class 9 substantially improves the US picture. **4. The EU is the real exposure, and it is specific.** COMET GROUP's 018820339 is a registered EU class 9 mark on the bare word COMET that expressly covers "Software", "Computer software for database management" and "Databases (electronic)", with only two narrow exclusions. Separately, EUIPO refused RHEA System's bare COMET application for plain "Software; Collaboration software" (018426171), and two more bare COMET class 9 applications from Comet ML and Perplexity AI are currently under opposition. If the ASF ever wanted an EU class 9 registration for a bare COMET mark, that would be difficult. Whether it is a problem for using "Apache Comet" is a different and much weaker question, and one that EU practice does not answer uniformly: adding a house mark to an earlier mark is not always treated as avoiding confusion in the EU. **5. Comet ML is the party most likely to object, but on class 42 grounds, not class 9.** It holds live US class 42 registrations for COMET and COMET.ML, it has litigated a TTAB cancellation, and it has already extracted a carve-out from a third party's class 9 application. Its EU class 9 application is opposed by someone else. It is an ML experiment-tracking tool rather than a query engine, so the goods are adjacent rather than identical, but it is the closest commercially active user of the bare name in our broad segment. **6. The closest comparator in class 9 is reassuring.** COMETBFT, an open source distributed systems infrastructure project run by a foundation, holds a live US class 9 registration (reg 7394268) plus an international registration, in the presence of every mark listed above. That is close to a direct precedent for an open source infrastructure project registering a COMET compound in class 9. **My reading:** "Apache Comet" in class 9 is defensible and less risky than the class 42 analysis suggested. The US class 9 field is open for our goods. The ASF has a directly analogous registered composite in APACHE IGNITE, whose recitation covers database management software with in-memory computing, and in APACHE BEAM, whose field is more crowded than ours. The one genuine concern is the EU, where COMET GROUP holds a registered class 9 mark covering database management software and the bare-name space is actively contested. I would flag that EU registration explicitly in the PODLINGNAMESEARCH JIRA rather than leave it out, and let VP Brand make the call on whether it is acceptable for a composite "Apache Comet" mark. None of the above is legal advice, it is a survey of what is in the registers. -- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
