Re: "Debian" Core Consortium
<quote who="MJ Ray" date="Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 09:32:44AM +0100">
> Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> > My suggestion would be that the Debian trademark should be restricted to
> > novel names and not used in descriptive terms. "Microsoft Debian" ought
> > to be permitted - "Debian T-shirts" should not.
>
> Does the Debian trademark cover clothing as a field of use?
The Debian mark is limited to computer programs and related
services. In the Linux world this allows for things like Linux:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_(washing_powder)
The reasons this is OK is because the washing powder company was
apparently not making a reference to or trying to capitalize off the
goodwill created the Linux mark in order to sell more Washing power.
The fact that it's two different groups is clear and nobody would be
confused that the the two were the same.
So, if someone created a clothing line called Debian, that would be
fine. However, if those shirts involved nothing but swirls, a familiar
font, and was targetted toward geeks in the free software community,
it might not be.
Regards,
Mako
--
Benjamin Mako Hill
mako@debian.org
http://mako.cc/
Reply to: