Re: Inappropriate use of Debian logo.

[Thibaut Paumard <mlotpot.news@free.fr>]

Hi,

Le 30/11/10 23:46, Ken Arromdee a écrit :
> But copyright doesn't apply to independent invention, which he claims this
> is, and which seems fairly reasonable.  If he independently invented it we
> only have a trademark claim; if we don't have a trademark claim we have
> none.

IANAL, but as far as I know, a trademark doesn't need to be registered
to be enforceable: if you can prove that, due to the use of a logo
closely resembling ours, a customer could falsely believe that the
product sold is "Debian", and that this use of our unregistered
trademark is harmful to the customer and/or our business, we would have
a claim.

In this precise case:

  - the logo is blue, not red;

  - the company sells computer hardware and MS Windows, the word
"debian" is nowhere to be found on the site and linux is only mentionned
marginally.

Therefore, I don't believe that this use of "our" unregistered trademark
does any harm. Nobody in his right mind would imagine for more than a
second that this company is related to Debian. At least, I don't believe
that any court (in its right mind) would rule in our favor.

So we could sue the company for big money, big corporations would
perhaps do that, but actually suing a hardware reseller with such a
little claim would, in my opinion, do more harm to Debian than their
choice to use a blue swirl as a logo.

Best regards, Thibaut.