"ESPHome Studio" on Kickstarter in violation of Open Home Foundation trademark rights?

[Hedda]

Describe your request

WFT?! A polish company called ATNET (atnel.p) is currently running using the name "ESPHome Studio" for a closed-source commercial for-profit software product with a paid license (yearly subscription fees) in a crowdsourcing campaign on Kickstarter.

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/esp-and-rtos-course/esphome-studio-next-gen-ide-for-smart-home-and-diy-projects/

Quote: "ESPHome Studio is a visual IDE designed to make ESPHome projects"

Is using the ESPHome name like that not a violation of Open Home Foundation trademark rights to use the ESPHome name like that without written permission?

This is or wiill be confusing to some people who might think that it is an official ESPHome product or that it is at least officially affiliated. See example:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1pmdmub/esphome_studio_legit/

Suggest that representatives from the ESPHome project and the Open Home Foundation request that they change the name they use.

While "ESPHome" is not a registered trademark I think it still qualify as a legal trademark of the Open Home Foundation.

• https://www.trademarkia.com/esphome-90705314

That is, the Open Home Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization, officially owns the "ESPHome" trademark and no therefore no one else has the right to use that name in a commercial software product without getting explicit and formal written permission from a legal represenative of the Open Home Foundation. The foundation owns the name and have the legal backing to prevent unauthorized commercial use that might confuse users or imply official endorsement.

This is not the same as fair use where third-party developers may typically refer to their project in descriptions (e.g., "Made for ESPHome") as long as they follow the foundation's specific branding guidelines

• https://esphome.io/guides/made_for_esphome/

For reference, the ESPHome project and its associated intellectual property were originally acquired by Nabu Casa from founder Otto Winter in 2021 before being donated to the newly established Open Home Foundation in early 2024 to ensure its long-term neutrality and protection.

PS: The Open Home Foundation also owns other key trademarks in the ecosystem, including Home Assistant and Music Assistant.

Why the uncertainty?

No response

Use cases

NA

What areas might this affect?

No response

Anything else?

[Hedda]

I have not looked that close at the actual product but their campaign and all promotional material very clearly looks like AI-slop.

• https://www.youtube.com/@mirekk36

  • https://www.youtube.com/@mirekk36/videos

They are also offering "rewards" with their reference hardware based on ESP8266 which too me is an indication they do not know what is best for ESPHome.

Reason why the Open Home Foundation should not want this is that use of AI-slop and such can give ESPHome a bad reputation.

Regardless, the way their campaign is presented it makes it looks like its clearly violates trademark, and by repeatedly calling it “ESPHome Studio” it makes it sould like it could be an endorsed product. They are not making any effort to imply that thier is not formally affiliated with the official ESPHome project.

Here are some screenshots from Kickstarter showing how they currently present their software which show that they are clearly marketing this product as "ESPHome Studio" and ths misprepresenting a brand that they do not have trademark right to:

[ssieb]

OHF is well aware of this. It doesn't look like it's going to make its backing anyway.