Ownership and Attachments
None of these terms, or the term "free software" itself, have been trademarked. Bruce Perens of OSI attempted to register "open source" as a service mark for OSI in the United States of America, but that attempt failed to meet the relevant trademark standards of specificity. OSI claims a trademark on "OSI Certified", and applied for trademark registration, but did not complete the paperwork. The United States Patent and Trademark Office labels it as "abandoned".
While the term "free software" is associated with FSF's definition, and the term "open source software" is associated with OSI's definition, the other terms have not been claimed by any group in particular. FSF's and OSI's definitions are worded quite differently but, the latter was based on FSF's definition and the set of software that they cover is almost identical.
All of the terms are used interchangeably, the choice of which to use is mostly political (wanting to support a certain group) or practical (thinking that one term is the clearest).
Read more about this topic: Alternative Terms For Free Software
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