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Comment by willwade | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking of “Persistent uniform resource locator” but then realised I think you are referring to the python library https://github.com/codeinthehole/purl (I get your argument although I quite like this new project. It’s closer to “Perl” in my mind. But then I am nearly 50..)

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I'm referring to Perl, which is another product in the same market (unixy command line applications) and has the same pronunciation.

https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search/likelihood-confusion

> Trademarks don’t have to be identical to be confusingly similar. Instead, they could just be similar in sound, appearance, or meaning, or could create a similar commercial impression. Here are examples of trademarks that were found to be confusingly similar.

> These trademarks are confusingly similar because they could be pronounced the same way, even though they’re spelled differently.

> Your mark -- T. Markey

> Conflicting mark -- Tee Marquee

From your phrasing here, it sounds like you think the OP is unaware of Perl, which is odd, considering they mention it in their very first sentence.

To clarify: I had read that passage, and I was definitely aware that the name could be interpreted as a reference.

Trademark conflicts in open store sometimes start that way. For example, “CouchBase” was a reference to “CouchDB” — it was originally a complementary effort, but later became a competitor. By the time the CouchDB folks realized that they should’ve been enforcing their trademark, it was too late.

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