Re: Skype/Facebook trademark logos in Debian packages
On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 02:08:14PM +1100, Ben Finney wrote:
> Eion Robb <eion@robbmob.com> writes:
>
> > > There's no “fair use” in trademark law AFAIK.
> > http://lmgtfy.com/?q=trademark+law+fair+use&l=1
>
> (Leads to
> <URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use_(U.S._trademark_law)>)
>
> Okay, so it seems (according to Wikipedia) that the USA does recognise a
> “trademark fair use”, which *does* allow referring to the product (using
> the mark “nominatively”):
>
> In the United States, trademark law includes a fair use defense,
> sometimes called "trademark fair use" to distinguish it from the
> better-known fair use doctrine in copyright. […]
>
> A nonowner may also use a trademark nominatively—to refer to the
> actual trademarked product or its source. […]
>
> This does, to my mind, permit using the mark to say “this product
> supports that other product and/or service”, and doesn't need the
> trademark holder's permission.
>
> Whether other jurisdictions have a similar allowance, I don't know.
More than the trademark fair use problem, there is one of a license one:
Are these logo really free ? (keep in mind that for example, the Firefox
logo is not, whatever the trademark status is)
Mike
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