Deno Land, the company behind the Deno runtime for JavaScript, has filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to cancel Oracle’s ownership of the JavaScript trademark. The petition contends that Oracle has abandoned the trademark since it has not provided any JavaScript-related goods or services since acquiring the rights from Sun Microsystems in 2009. This move aims to address what many in the developer community see as an outdated claim over a widely used and generic term.
The filing, submitted on November 22, follows a broader campaign initiated in September by key figures in the JavaScript ecosystem, including Ryan Dahl, the creator of Node.js and Deno, and Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript. They co-authored an open letter urging Oracle to relinquish the trademark. The letter, which garnered over 14,000 signatures from developers and organizations, highlighted the lack of Oracle’s involvement in JavaScript’s evolution and called for the term to be freed from unnecessary legal constraints.
Oracle’s ownership of the JavaScript trademark stems from its 2009 acquisition of Sun Microsystems. However, according to Dahl, the company has not contributed to the language’s development or ecosystem. In a blog post on November 25, Dahl stated that Oracle’s claim to the trademark is baseless and amounts to abandonment. “Our aim is for Oracle to recognize this as a clear case of trademark abandonment and let the cancellation proceed uncontested,” Dahl explained. He also emphasized that, should Oracle contest the petition, Deno Land is prepared to present evidence showing that “JavaScript” has become a generic term universally adopted by developers without any association with Oracle.
Dahl further described Oracle’s trademark ownership as an “outdated legal relic” that has caused unnecessary obstacles for the JavaScript community. These obstacles include cease-and-desist letters sent to organizations simply for using the term “JavaScript” in their branding. The USPTO filing represents a critical step toward resolving these issues, potentially liberating the term “JavaScript” from its current legal entanglements and ensuring its open use within the global developer community.