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Re: Debian logo and TM logos



On Tue, Sep 24, 2002 at 02:13:29PM +0200, Nicolas SABOURET wrote:

> There has been a discussion on -user-swedish, reported and extended in 
> -private, about possible "copies" of the Debian logo for other societies.
> Since the thread has been covered by a lot of noise, I would like to 
> point two examples:
> 	- The Riverrock logo:
> 		http://www.w5online.co.uk/files/links2.htm
> 	As someone pointed out, it is exactly the debian swirl, 'unwinded'  
> 	into a straight line and 'reswirled' from the other end and in the other 
> direction.
> 	The problem is that this logo seems to have a TM !
> 
> 	- Elektrostore
> 		http://www.elektrostore.se/
> 	The debian logo has been a bit 'streched' during reswirl, but it is 
> 	still "ou" logo.

Are either of the above logos "confusingly similar" to our own?  If not,
trademark law does not give us any recourse in asking them to stop using
the logos, and there is nothing wrong with them registering their own
trademark.  The real problem is that this is a violation of copyright.
Debian-legal can't help resolve these situations -- either the original
logo designer, or SPI (assuming the copyright has been transferred or
SPI chooses to fund the lawyers) needs to get involved here to ask them
to stop using these logos.  Only the copyright holder or an authorized
representative has the legal authority to demand that they stop
infringing the copyright.

Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

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