VistA Trademark Issues

The History

As for the OpenVistA name....WorldVistA first started using the term OpenVistA (note the upper case A) several months before we formally incorporated during the first porting effort to Linux/GT.M around 2000. In retrospect what we didn't do then, regrettably, is trademark the name. A year or so after our incorporation Medsphere started using the name, and then filed a trademark Application a couple of years ago. While there was talk of having multiple Open VistA's (there is a HUI OpenVista too) WorldVistA decided that it would be best to re-brand our efforts than contest the filing or muddy the waters.

The Wiki strategy

Because the term "OpenVistA" was used for software package names, there is some documentation that uses the term in a technical context. For instance from sourceforge it is possible to download a package with "OpenVista" in the name. When you untar those files they move into a "OpenVista" directory. So if we removed the term from those documentation files the instructions would all be meaningless.

Recently Medsphere has released their modifications of FOIA VistA as OpenVistA Server. It is possible that WorldVistA community members will use this site to create documentation refering to that release.

So this wiki will use the OpenVistA term in two ways, one is for historical documentation reasons, and the other is in the fashion that falls under the Fair Use of Medsphere's mark. When we use the term in a historical context we will link to this page to give some indication about why we do this. When we use it as Fair Use of Medspheres mark we will not say anything special. In the future this will probably be the most common use of the term.