MJ Ray wrote: > On 2004-07-06 20:21:39 +0100 Matthew Garrett > <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote: >> Lawyers have told people that releasing images of their trademarks under >> a free license would potentially harm their trademarks. [...] > > If asked a suitable question, I expect some lawyers to say that talking > in one's sleep will potentially harm one's trademarks because you may > utter a blanket licence, but that's just normal lawyerly caution. Heh. > Seriously, I'd be interested to know more about the reasoning and try to > understand it, although I'm not qualified to dispute it. If this advice > is accurate, then trademarked images are not easy to include in free > software. If the registrant wants to produce free software, they should > reconsider how they are using their trademarks. I believe the issue is that unlike patents and copyrights, unenforced trademarks become "diluted" and no longer enforcable. To some lawyers (especially those not overly familiar with Free Software), a freely-licensed trademark might be seen as unenforced. However, given that most free licenses do place _some_ restrictions on the use of the trademark (much like many businesses have "trademark usage guidelines"), then I believe this fear is probably unfounded, as long as those restrictions are enforced. (IANAL, TINLA.) - Josh Triplett
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