Monday night I wrote a email to both the lawyer who sent the request to change
LogiSphere to something else by 15th of Feb and the two people I had
contact with at Logitech in 2005 and 2006.

I asked for a contact at Logitech to talk about the matter and avoid a legal
battle.

I have received an answer from the Logitech Corporate Counsel Tuesday evening:

Die seitens der Logitech eingetragenen Marken und Patente stellen einen
wesentlichen Teil unseres "Kapitals" dar. Deshalb ist für uns der Schutz
der daraus resultierenden Rechte von großer Bedeutung.

Das von uns beauftragte Anwaltsbüro hat in der von Ihnen vorgenommenen
Verwendung der Bezeichnung "LogiSphere" zur Bezeichnung und Bewerbung Ihrer
Produkte einschließlich der Benutzung als Teil der Internetdomain
www.logisphere.org eine Verletzung von Markenrechten festgestellt.

Sollten Ihnen nicht nachweislich Rechte zustehen, die Sie zur Führung der
genannten Bezeichnungen berechtigen, möchten wir Ihnen nahe legen, den
Aufforderungen Folge zu leisten, da sonst ohne unser weiteres Zutun
gerichtliche Schritte eingeleitet werden.

Es steht Ihnen selbstverständlich frei, die Produkte unter einer anderen
nicht markenrechtlich geschützten Bezeichnung bzw. Website weiter zu
vermarkten.

Translated:

Marks and patents registered by Logitech represent a substantial part of our capital. 
Therefore the protection of the rights resulting from the registration is of great importance for us. 

The law firm assigned by us has determined an injury of trademark laws in the use of 
"LogiSphere" for your products and the use as part of the domain www.logisphere.org. 

If you cannot prove rights which entitle you to the use of the designations mentioned, 
we would like to suggest to carry out the requests otherwise without our further effort 
from our side judicial steps will be started. 

Naturally you are free to continue to market your products under another not legally 
protected name / website.

Maybe I should call this person and ask him what looks like a reasonable period for a smooth transition to
a new name...

I tell you, ask them to pay for any changes you have to make. This is not your mistake and you should not have to suffer any loss to bolster their trademarks. It is an entirely reasonable request since you can likely demonstrate prior use of the "LOGISPHERE" trademark. Yes, the trademark is *your* property and they are asking you to give it up so that their mark "LOGI" is stronger. Don't volunteer to do it for free.

I have never registered LogiSphere as a trade mark.
When I started to write the software back in spring 2005, LogiSphere seemed like a LOGIcal name to me,
as I wrote it to control the tilt/pan functions of the camera over the web.

I have done some research on the name, but at that time there was only the (empty) logisphere.com domain as well as logisphere.fr

Nothing else poppped up in Google when I was looking for LogiSphere, so I though I was on the safe side.

As Pete stated correctly, meanwhile the software supports many more devices and does not depend on any correlation with the product made by Logitech.

To me it seems that the loss is more on Logitechs side, as people will be less likely to find a software that makes their camera useable.
(apart from the work that is involved on my side...)

I wrote them that I am willing to change the name, but that I needed 6 month for the change.
This should give me enough time for a name that is safe to use - and again I don't feel like registering as a trade mark, because I don't want to spend money (around 1500 Euros for the major countries) on a name...

No, Pete, life is not hard, at least I try not to make it hard by avoiding a legal battle.
Since before the release of 2.0 I have thought about a new name for the program, luckily I did not keep the working title LogiSphereNG...

Once I have a good number of new names together, I will start another Poll for it and see what LogiSphere users prefer -
but as those polls always have very few answers, I'll count my own vote at least 60x and decide in the end

First in my own languaje, then English:
Mi humilde opinion: lo que está haciendo Logitech es una acción estupida en relación a un supuesto prejuicio que LogiSphere podría causarles; creo que en todo caso tu has estado haciendoles propaganda gratuita; quizas ellos podrían estar molestos por las opiniones de gente que menciona a tu soft como algo que viene a cubrir falencias de Logitech (estoy de acuerdo en ello). Iniciar acciones judiciales sería una pelea en la que creo tendrías oportunidad de salir vistorioso, pero si asi fuera, a costa de perder precioso tiempo y tranquilidad en acciones legales que terminarán en vaya a saber cuanto tiempo(recuerda que el mejor amigo del hombre es el perro; y el peor es el abogado).
Mi sugerencia: Cambia el nombre por alguno que podrías elegir tu o proponer varios para someter a votacion en este foro o donde lo desees. Tu producto seguirá siendo tan fantastico como lo es ahora.
Saludos,
Jorge

My humble opinion: what Logitech is doing is a stupid action in relation to a supposed prejudice that LogiSphere could cause to them: I believe that in any case you have been making them gratuitous propaganda; perhaps they could be annoyed because of people opinions who mention that your soft is covering software performance failures from Logitech(I agree in that). Initiate legal actions would be a fight in which I think you would have opportunity to win, but even if this where the case, your cost will be the loose of precious time and tranquillity, while developing legal actions that who knows how long they will last(remember: man´s best friend is the dog; the worse one is the lawyer).
My suggestion: changes the name to one that you could choose by your own or propose several to put under voting in this forum or where you wish to. Your product will continue being as fantastic as it is it now. Sincerely,
Jorge

JFP

My suggestion is to never take on an 800 pound gorilla, especially if he has a lot of money and a good law firm.