# Difference between discourse.org hosting and Communiteq
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Tags:** hosting
**Created:** [5월 7, 2019, 3:05오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076 "2019-05-07T15:05:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ondrej](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ondrej)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 3:05오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/1 "2019-05-07T15:05:31Z")
Hi,
I’m confused as to what is what. So here goes: what is the difference between this:
And the discourse I’m on now.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 3:09오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/2 "2019-05-07T15:09:23Z")
Hi @ondrej,
[Communiteq](https://www.communiteq.com) (formerly DiscourseHosting) is a different company than [discourse.org](http://discourse.org)
We both offer hosting for Discourse software, but [discourse.org](http://discourse.org) is also the company creating the Discourse software.
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### Author:  [@ondrej](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ondrej)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 3:27오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/3 "2019-05-07T15:27:53Z")
Ohh so you provide same software under different company?
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 3:31오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/4 "2019-05-07T15:31:06Z")
Yes. We ([discourse.org](http://discourse.org)) develop the [Discourse software](https://github.com/discourse/discourse) alongside the community here on meta. Anyone can download the Discourse software for free and host it themselves.
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### Author:  [@Jeremie\_Leroy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jeremie_Leroy)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 3:34오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/5 "2019-05-07T15:34:05Z")
@ondrej, kind of, Discourse is open source, you can tweak and play around to host it yourself on your own server, or use the [https://www.discourse.org/](https://www.discourse.org/) service so they host it and maintain it for you.
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### Author:  [@sat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sat)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 4:25오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/6 "2019-05-07T16:25:55Z")
@j.jaffeux, @david so it means anyone can use word **discourse** in domain name(like discourse.business or discourse.center or any other domain extension) and provide discourse platform hosting service, right?
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### Author:  [@kemitchell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kemitchell)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 4:35오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/7 "2019-05-07T16:35:53Z")
Lawyer for CDCK ([discourse.org](http://discourse.org)) here.
You should speak to a (different) lawyer about legal rights to use a name in business. In the US that is a “trademark” kind of legal conversation, though most general business lawyers will be plenty able to have it, not just trademark specialists.
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### Author:  [@sat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sat)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 4:43오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/8 "2019-05-07T16:43:35Z")
@kemitchell, so how [Communiteq](https://www.communiteq.com) (formerly DiscourseHosting) is using discourse word in domain name? I’m not a lawyer, help me understand 🙂
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### Author:  [@kemitchell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kemitchell)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 4:55오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/9 "2019-05-07T16:55:34Z")
@sat, I am not _your_ lawyer. I’m afraid you’ll need to do a bit of background reading, or find a lawyer who can help you.
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### Author:  [@sat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sat)
#### Post date: [5월 7, 2019, 4:56오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/10 "2019-05-07T16:56:44Z")
I dont need lawyer 🙂 I was just curious about this so asked you.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 12:40오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/11 "2019-05-08T00:40:06Z")
I am not a lawyer.
I am a full time consultant who makes a living supporting, installing, and migrating data to discourse.
I have been advised not to use discourse in my domain name, though that person wasn’t a lawyer.
I think that a lawyer would be likely to tell you that if you wanted to start a business with the discourse software that you’d be better off not using Discourse in the name. if you have a business that is about conversation analysis that using Discourse in the name would be just fine.
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### Author:  [@Hector](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Hector)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 2:25오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/12 "2019-05-08T02:25:48Z")
I bet that allowing a competing company to use the name happened before hiring the lawyer.
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### Author:  [@sat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sat)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 5:34오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/13 "2019-05-08T05:34:53Z")
I do see there are many sites use trademark. like androidforums .com or iphoneforums .net, iphone and android are trademarks. You can find many such examples.
I feel it is bad idea to use trademark but that is my view.
Here is what Jeff says…
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-trademarked/8681/2?u=sat](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-trademarked/8681/2)
again, I’m not a lawyer but there may be some way…that is why [Communiteq](https://www.communiteq.com) (formerly DiscourseHosting) is using discourse in domain name.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 5:50오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/14 "2019-05-08T05:50:30Z")
This is completely irrelevant, and totally unrelated to the topic raised in the original post.
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### Author:  [@michaeld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/michaeld)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 6:08오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/15 "2019-05-08T06:08:11Z")
Co-founder chiming in here to avoid that we look like a scammer 😃 because we did consult a lawyer before we went to market.
Even when a name is trademarked, the WIPO (the organization that governs intellectual property) has decided that using it in a domain name is allowed under a few conditions (commonly known as the Oki Data conditions). This is actually a very, very common practice.
The two most important conditions are:
- make sure there is no confusion (hence the too big and too annoying footer on our website)
- do not offer products from competing brands
Of course we meet all four conditions. And like Jeff said: there is no trademark on this English word. There is a trademark on the colored Discourse logo by the way, and using that would be confusing.
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### Author:  [@ondrej](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ondrej)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 7:31오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/16 "2019-05-08T07:31:10Z")
@michaeld thanks for clearing this up for me 😁😄
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### Author:  [@sat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sat)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 3:11오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/17 "2019-05-08T15:11:36Z")
@michaeld, good to know that. Thanks for sharing details. I was curious how this works 🙂
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [5월 8, 2019, 4:00오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-discourse-org-hosting-and-communiteq/117076/18 "2019-05-08T16:00:07Z")
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