JavaScript is the most widely used programming language in the world. Now in its 30th year, JavaScript is firmly established as the language that powers the web. But it has a problem. Oracle owns the trademark to its name and isn't going to give it up without a fight.

The news that Oracle isn't going to voluntarily relinquish the JavaScript tradmark came in the latest tweet from @deno_land with the hashtag #FreeJavaScript. But if you've not been following the campaign, that's not where the story starts.

In September 2022, Ryan Dahl, co-founder and Deno Land and the author of node.js as well as deno.js, posted an open letter to Oracle on his blog. With the title:

Dear Oracle, Please Release the JavaScript Trademark

It pointed out that the trademark has no commercial value and that:

The best value Oracle could derive from the trademark would be from the goodwill it receives by granting it into the public domain.

Asking Oracle to play nice wasn't successful - as many pointed out Dahl was overlooking the personality of Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. But while the request was met with silence, it did bring the problem's caused by the trademark into focus and the ball was set rolling and, in September 2024, another open letter was posted this time backed by a petition with nearly 16,000 signatures.

When this evoked no response a formal process was instigated for the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel the trademark.

The petition for cancellation makes three claims, the final one of which, that Oracle has abandoned the trademark through non-use, that is by not having any products or services using the name "JavaScript", seems in itself to be sufficient grounds. 

The first claim is that the term "JavaScript" is generic and that by law trademarks that have become generic cannot remain trademarks. This is the claim that seems the most open to argument in that, as I have argued over many years, it has never been a particularly suitable name for the language.

Back in 2020, on the occasion of JavaScript's 25th anniversary, I wrote: 

JavaScript's biggest problem is its name. Over the years it has matured to be much more than a "scripting language", a description which leads many to dismiss it as trivial, and what has it to do with Java?

The answer being essentially branding, Java was (coffee)-flavor of the month/epoch and having rejected its initial name Mocha as not making the association clear enough, the new language wanted to associate itself with Java. Sun Microsystems, meanwhile had trademarked a long list of possible names and while Sun permitted first Netscape and then Mozilla to use "JavaScript", seeming without demur, Oracle wasn't isn't prepared to be so lax. Even so the only time we've reported on the trademark being an issue was in 2018, see Oracle Owns JavaScript and Apple Pulls App when Apple disallowed an app because it had "JavaScript" in its name.

It is Claim 2 that makes me resort to the word "Strange" for this report. The petition points to fraudulent behavior on the part of Oracle. It outlines how, when Oracle renewed the JavaScript trademark in 2019, the submission to USPTO included screenshots of Node.js as evidence of Oracle’s “use in commerce” violates the integrity of trademark law which, Deno argues, potentially invalidates its renewal.

At the moment Oracle has asked for a 30-day extension prior to having to file its answer, making February 3 the day when the proceedings advance to the next step. But even if Oracle doesn't prevaricate further that timetable for hearing evidence and responding to it takes us well into 2026.

So to avoid being sued we need to refer to ECMAScript - though it too is a trademark. Sticking to plain JS seems to be the safest option.

• Ian Elliot is the author of several books on JavaScript, principally JavaScript Async which covers asynchronous programming in JavaScript, async/await, Promises, Service Workers and so on and Just JavaScript: An Idiomatic Approach,which is intended for programmers who are familiar with another language and takes a radical look at JavaScript that takes account of the way it is object-based. 

More Information

Deno v. Oracle: Canceling the JavaScript Trademark

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