PyPI package naming a package that has a same name as a company

Python Help
1

Hello!

I want to publish a new Python package. However, whenever I try to pick up a name that is free on pypi, and I google the name, either a company or a company’s product has the same name.
Is it fine to publish the pypi package if it does not do the same thing as them and is it not trademarked?

Thank you.

2

You might run afoul of trademark or copyright issues. Even if you’re legally fine to do it is it worth paying the lawyer to prove it?

3

At the PyPI level, if you can take ownership of the name (i.e. if PyPI allows you), then it is yours.

For the rest (trademark and so on) this is probably the wrong forum to ask this question, in my opinion (i.e. we are not lawyers or whatever).

4

Thanks for the comment. I definitely do not want to run in legal trouble. That’s why I am asking here. I am bit confused because there are many pypi packages that use common words that overlap with company names.

5

Thanks. I always check whether the trademark exists and avoid such names. Do you know an appropriate place where I can get an answer?

6

You could ask here, it is probably closer to the set of skills and knowledge required:

If you want a serious, definitive answer you should seek professional advice.

If you want advice from some random person on the internet, then here is one: absolutely no problem, it is fine, as long as you do not actively and dishonestly try to make people believe that your PyPI project is that other thing that has the same name.

3 Likes
7

I think we’d have heard about it by now if this was genuinely an issue. I’m typing each of my PyPI packages into a search engine and found that I’ve inadvertently taken the name of one oil and gas company, one nature conserve, one data and analytics company, an AI vendor and whatever this is. And I pick fairly stupid names so others will be in worse positions.

2 Likes