Hi, I'm confused about the history and companies behind Arduino.
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Here is my current understanding.
First there was:
Arduino LCC, which owned the trademark in the United States.
Arduino SRL, which manufactured the chips and owned the trademark in Europe.
The companies got into a dispute over the trademark.
After two and a half years of legal disputes, a settlement was reached, in which Arduino Holding was established to own the trademark, and Arduino LCC continued as a subsidiary. Arduino SRL was terminated for unnecessary. An Arduino Foundation was also planned, which never realized.
Less than a year ago, a new company called BMCI owned by Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, David Mellis, Tom Igoe and Fabio Violante bought all the shares of Arduino Holding. --
However, I am not getting answers to the following:
Is/was Arduino Holding officially name Arduino AG?
What was Arduino AS? The company is mentioned in some articles, but nowhere does it say which company it was.
Above all, what is the current situation of the companies? My assumption is that Arduino LCC is owned by BMCI (owned by Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielesi, David Mellisi, Tom Igoe and Fabio Violante) and the other companies are defunct. However, for example, Arduino SRL, which I understand was discontinued along with Arduino.org, is a legal operator in this site's terms of use.
If these info are not found in wikipedia, I think you'd better contact Arduino through this page: https://www.arduino.cc/en/contact-us/ Let's see if they answer.
First there was wiring; essentially a student project.
Then there was Arduino. Being formed by a bunch of college professors, and being "open source" anyway, no one paid much attention the the legal formalities like trademarks. Actual board manufacturing was farmed out to a local manufacturer, as is common for hardware.
There was some noise about taking the hardware non-open-source, and manufacturing was limited so various would-be distributors were "annoyed."
This went by the wayside. "Derivative" designs flourished.
Clones became a thing, with and without violations of the OSHW licenses and possible trademark issues.
The company that was doing the Official Arduino Manufacturing seems to have decided that they were doing all the work, and deserved more say in product directions (less cloneable products (based on some of the boards they announced)?) and (presumably) a bigger cut of the profits. This became Arduino SRL ("Arduino.org")
This left the original Arduino team (Arduino.cc) in quite a bind, since they lost their manufacturing capability.
Most people saw Arduino SRL's moves as "distasteful." Arduino.cc was left scrambling to find new manufacturer(s), plug up the legal holes they had never addressed, fight a legal battle over "ownership" of the brand, and differentiate themselves in favorable ways.
No one associated with either Arduino ever "made chips." Arduino.org became increasingly discredited, and eventually they "went away" somehow, and the original team continued (presumably with new manufacturers.)
In the absence of competing claims and product lines, most people (including me) lost track of any additional legal or business-side maneuvering.
I don't know if there is an "Arduino Foundation." In the absence of an actual tax-advantaged entity, I'm not even sure what that means.
I haven't hear of BMCI. (or is that BCMI (back in 2017)