EA - Who owns "Effective Altruism"? by River

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Who owns "Effective Altruism"?, published by River on February 1, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.I've noticed a bit of confusion among EAs about whether CEA (or technically EVF) owns the phrase "effective altruism". I've heard a couple of EAs claim they have the trademark, or asserted some kind of ownership right against a scammer once. And I do have the impression that CEA tries to manage the EA brand in a way that suggests that they feel like they own it.However, I checked the US Patent and Trademark Office's database, it shows trademarks on "Centre for Effective Altruism" and "Effective Altruism Global", but not "effective altruism". Is it even possible to have a trademark on the name of a philosophy? Is there some other area of law that is relevant?Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.