Change the plugin name and slug in accordance with WordPress.org plugin review

[aldavigdis]

Just got the following from the WordPress.org plugin review team:

Your plugin display name is: 1984 DK Connection for WooCommerce

Which made the following plugin permalink (aka slug): 1984-dk-woo

Due to the legality of trademarks, and confusion that could happen due to ownership and representation, we cannot permit your chosen display name nor slug and require you to change them.

What to do next

This email contains a great deal of information that will help you with renaming your plugin. Please read the entire email carefully (especially the 'Why This Matters' section) as it will address common mistakes that will delay your review.

We have changed your plugin permalink: 1984-connection-dk-woocommerce

And recommend the following display name: 1984 Connection for DK and WooCommerce

We need you to do the following:

Confirm the permalink is acceptable or suggest one you prefer (note: you must specifically request a different permalink if desired)
Update your code with a new Display Name that does not infringe on trademarks in both the readme and the main plugin file
Go to "Add your plugin" and upload an updated version of this plugin.

Be advised, your display name may not begin with any trademarked terms, nor use them in a manner that might imply a relationship. This often includes portmanteau when meant to reference trademarks for another entity. Some trademarks have stricter enforcement laws than others.

Alternatively if you feel this decision was made in error, you can do one of the following:

Prove that you legally have the right to the original name/slug
Provide the user account for an official owner to whom we should transfer the plugin

This looks a bit silly as we are not connecting DK or WooCommerce with 1984, but the other two, so the options are to:

• Bite the bullet and let the plugin review team dictate the plugin name and slug
• Make a reservation about this silliness

[aldavigdis]

A response has been sent:

Hi there,

As previously mentioned, I changed my WordPress.org email address to be on the 1984.hosting domain name. Please consider moving this conversation to there as this process has become longer and more convoluted than I expected.

Secondly, I can't see the trademark infringement here."1984" is the legal company name here (yes, it's 4 numerical digits) and we are only known as 1984 Hosting on the international market and the 4-digit name is what we generally use locally — and this is intended for our local market.

DK is the name of the API we connect to and the name of the vendor of that API and the associated accounting software.

For reference, the business registry can be viewed at https://www.skatturinn.is/fyrirtaekjaskra/leit/kennitala/5003062110.

In accordance with article 17 of the Detailed Plugin Rules (https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#17-plugins-must-respect-trademarks-copyrights-and-project-names), our company name is the first term of the plugin name, as opposed to, say "DK Connection for WooCommerce by 1984" or similar. It connects WooCommerce with the DK API, which in fact makes it a "DK Connection for WooCommerce", so "1984 DK Connection for WooCommerce" makes perfect sense here and is according to the rules.

I understand that the example from the 2nd paragraph is being used here in an enforcing manner but I don't think it is more than an example of an appropriate application of the rule about the first term being the vendor name, but not a strict interpretation of that rule.

The plugin is intended to replace non-GPL plugins provided under the table by various local agencies and they are collectively referred to as "DK connections" in the local, Icelandic market. So "DK connection" is already an established term for software plugins and extensions that connect e-commerce and checkout solutions to DK's JSON API.

Thirdly, for absolute clarity, the suggested name from the plugin review team goes as far as indicating that the plugin does something other than it does. We are not running our own backend API for this plugin so this is not a "1984 connection", as the plugin connects to DK's JSON API directly.

As already stated, I am more than happy to take this conversation to my [email protected] or [email protected] email account.

Best,
Alda