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Top stories from https://news.ycombinator.com (with 100+ score) Contribute to the development here: https://github.com/phil-r/hackernewsbot Also check https://t.me/designer_news Contacts: @philr
When DEF CON partners with the U.S. Army (Score: 150+ in 11 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zBRE
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zBRE
VC-backed company just killed my EU trademark for a small OSS project (Score: 156+ in 20 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/c/6zApu
I run a small open-source project Deepkit (Trademark 017875717) I've been building for many years. It's not huge, just a few thousand users compared to the big OSS names, but to me it was worth protecting, so I trademarked the name in the EU and US a few years back. I had hoped to be protected from other corporations this way and live peacefully.
A $160M-funded company named Deepki (Trademark 1751952) came along and filed for cancellation at EUIPO since they needed the trademark now after getting lots of funding. They won. Now my trademark is gone.
The frustrating part? The EU actually does allow open-source (even free projects) to have trademarks, but you have to prove "genuine use" in the EU for the goods/services your trademark covers. Which seems to force you in collecting user sensitive data otherwise you are entirely unable to prove that you have actual users in the EU. I generally try to collect as little information as possible (also because I don't care where my users are coming from). I had google analytics running for some time on the main page (not documentation), but most of the time it didn't work and it seems most of my users block it anyway.
Here's what I gave the EUIPO and why they said no:
- Google Analytics for my site with a full country breakdown from 2018–2023. A few hundred to ~1,800 EU visitors per year per country. They said that’s "too small" to count as real commercial exploitation for my Class 9 software. Also, they said they couldn’t tell which goods those visits were actually for.
- npmjs + GitHub stats - hundreds of thousands of downloads and thousands of stars. Rejected because there's no location data, so they couldn't confirm if the usage was in the EU. In some cases, they said the timeframes weren't even clear.
- They basically kept repeating that they couldn't clearly link any of the usage to the specific goods/services my trademark was registered for.
The conclusion:
>Conclusion: It follows from the above that the EUTM proprietor has not proven genuine use of the contested mark for any of the goods and services for which it is registered. As a result, the application for revocation is wholly successful and the contested European Union trade mark must be revoked in its entirety. According to Article 62(1) EUTMR, the revocation will take effect from the date of the application for revocation, that is, as of 18/03/2024.
>COSTS: According to Article 109(1) EUTMR, the losing party in cancellation proceedings must bear fees and costs incurred by the other party.
They even admitted there's no strict minimum for usage, and free software can count, but in their eyes my EU traffic was too low and not clearly tied to the trademarked goods.
I also have the US trademark for the name. This same company tried to register in the US around 2022 (Trademark #79379273) and got blocked because it was too similar (decision made by USPTO). But a few months ago they somehow got it registered there too (Trademark #7789522), not sure how they did that now.
Now I'm sitting here wondering:
- Is it even worth getting a second opinion and appealing in the EU? I mean the project is very small.
- Should I fight the US registration?
- Or should I just walk away from trademarks altogether for my open-source projects. I lost so much money because of this already.
- And for OSS projects in general, is there even a practical, privacy-friendly way to prove EU usage without generating revenue?
- Is it even worth holding the trademark if proving EU usage is this brittle for OSS? If the trademark can be deleted just like that even after spending a few thousands dollars on lawyers. Probably a skill issue, but still, damn.
It sucks to lose the name I've been building for years to a corporation with $160M behind them, especially when this is just a side project I do in my spare time, and to them I'm a nobody. If nothing else, maybe my case can be a cautionary tale for other OSS maintainers.
OCaml as my primary language (🔥 Score: 151+ in 3 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zCYz
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zCYz
I'm Worried It Might Get Bad (Score: 150+ in 6 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zC54
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zC54
So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork? (Score: 152+ in 7 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zBLP
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zBLP
New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients (🔥 Score: 152+ in 3 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zChE
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zChE
We caught companies making it harder to delete your personal data online (🔥 Score: 155+ in 3 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zBVp
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zBVp
Website Is for Humans (🔥 Score: 167+ in 1 hour)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zCiv
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zCiv
Bezier-rs – algorithms for Bézier segments and shapes (❄️ Score: 151+ in 3 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6znDp
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6znDp
FFmpeg 8.0 adds Whisper support (🔥 Score: 155+ in 1 hour)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zBmh
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zBmh
F-Droid build servers can't build modern Android apps due to outdated CPUs (Score: 153+ in 4 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/c/6zAJF
On August 7, 2025, a new build problem started hitting many Android apps on F-Droid. Many Android apps on F-Droid have been unable to publish updates if they use Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 8.12.0 or Gradle 9.0.
The root cause: Google’s new aapt2 binary in AGP 8.12.0 started requiring CPU instructions (SSE4.1, SSSE3) that F-Droid’s build farm hardware doesn’t support. This is similar to a 2021 AGP 4.1.0 issue, but it has returned, and now affects hundreds of apps.
As an example, my open-source app MBCompass hit this issue. I downgraded to AGP 8.11.1 with Gradle 8.13 to make it build, but even then, F-Droid failed due to a baseline profile reproducibility bug in AGP. The only workaround was disabling baseline profiles and pushing yet another release.
This has led to multiple “maintenance” versions in a short time, confusing users and wasting developer time, just to work around infrastructure issues outside the developer’s control.
References:
- F-Droid admin issue: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/admin/-/issues/593
- Catima example: https://github.com/CatimaLoyalty/Android/issues/2608
- MBCompass case: https://github.com/CompassMB/MBCompass/issues/88
Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks (🔥 Score: 152+ in 1 hour)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zAV9
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zAV9
RISC-V single-board computer for less than 40 euros (❄️ Score: 153+ in 4 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zma4
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zma4
Millau Viaduct (❄️ Score: 150+ in 5 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zeXU
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zeXU
A spellchecker used to be a major feat of software engineering (2008) (❄️ Score: 152+ in 4 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zmvR
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zmvR
Illinois bans use of artificial intelligence for mental health therapy (🔥 Score: 151+ in 2 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zDtg
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zDtg
Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video] (Score: 152+ in 8 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zBJP
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zBJP
UK expands police facial recognition rollout with 10 new facial recognition vans (Score: 151+ in 9 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zBAf
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zBAf
PYX: The next step in Python packaging (🔥 Score: 162+ in 2 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zD8B
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zD8B
Pebble Time 2* Design Reveal (Score: 158+ in 5 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zC8B
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zC8B
Nginx Introduces Native Support for Acme Protocol (🔥 Score: 156+ in 2 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zCq7
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zCq7
Nearly 1 in 3 Starlink satellites detected within the SKA-Low frequency band (Score: 150+ in 8 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zB6x
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zB6x
[BUG] Claude says "You're absolutely right!" about everything (Score: 152+ in 6 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zAWY
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zAWY
The History of Windows XP (❄️ Score: 150+ in 3 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zqZm
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zqZm
Journaling using Nix, Vim and coreutils (Score: 151+ in 20 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zy5w
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zy5w
H-1B Visa Changes Approved by White House (Score: 150+ in 15 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zza4
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zza4
WHY2025: How to become your own ISP [video] (Score: 150+ in 14 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zyTe
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zyTe
We shouldn't have needed lockfiles (❄️ Score: 150+ in 6 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zbZf
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zbZf
Blender is Native on Windows 11 on Arm (❄️ Score: 152+ in 4 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zmCk
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zmCk
All known 49-year-old Apple-1 computers (❄️ Score: 150+ in 4 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6zkkH
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6zkkH