I think about the business models around open sourced software. Or maybe even more the other way around: I think for lots of software that using open source software is the better alternative for the business using it, but how can the authors of said software make a living of it?
From what I can see larger enterprises often require commercial support and/or cloud offerings for software that they use. Hence, it is a business model to offer such services around your software. But as seen e.g. with MongoDB and AWS, there is always the problem of someone bigger or just other than you to offer services around your software.
Now, I wonder if one could register a trademark on the name of the software - but not on the software itself. From what I understand, when you register a trademark you need to specify what classes you want to register the trademark for.
If e.g. class 42 for “scientific and technological services” was used, one could exclude others from offering services like e.g. consulting using the trademarked name of the software. If someone else wanted to offer services using the product name, they would need a license from the trademark holder for this.
This would allow unhindered development and use of the software, while still addressing the business needs.
But then I am not a lawyer, and maybe this doesn’t work as imagined?