There are 9624 registered U.S. trademark designs incorporating
spirals.* Many of these are somewhat similar to one another; there
are typically other elements (e.g., colors, wordmarks, number,
arrangement) that differentiate them from one another.
Taking a step back, though, I don't see evidence that Debian's
logos are trademarked at all, at least in the U.S. Searching the
USPTO database shows a single hit for Debian, for the word-only
mark ``Debian'' as applied to ``Computer Utility and Operating
System Software'' [0]. That trademark is held by SPI.
The detailed file [1] includes two sets of ``specimens'', one of
which is a screenshot of the Debian.org website showing the spiral
logo, but the other includes images of a CD and the docs for
Debian 1.3, which have a cute stack of letter blocks arranged to
spell Debian.**
So if the spiral logo isn't trademarked, then any infringement
claims related to the logo have to fall back on copyright, which
covers the specific expression and not the general theme.
Claire
[0] http://tarr.uspto.gov/tarr?regser=serial&entry=75386376&action=Request+Status
[1] http://tmportal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow?SRCH=Y&isSubmitted=true&details=&SELECT=US+Serial+No&TEXT=75386376#
* I looked through the first 2900. For fun, check out
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=115hb8.2.1
which appears to have been made using the same tool in Illustrator
as was used for the Debian logo, and
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=8ekr88.2.1
a spiral in a similar red to the Debian logo.
** As
D
E B
I A N
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