Re: Trademark license compatibility with GPL and/or DFSG

[Marco d'Itri <md@Linux.IT>]

xanthophile@gmail.com wrote:

>technology. Unfortunately, the company's trademark guide makes the
>following restrictions on the use of the trademark:
>
>(1) the product (i.e. the Linux kernel) must display the trademark on
>the splash screen (or in the About... box);
>(2) the trademark must appear in all documentation, marketing and
>promotional materials for the product;
>(3) the product must be guaranteed to be compliant with the wireless
>protocol; and
>(4) the uses of the trademark must be approved by the company before
>(each) distribution.
>
>I'd say we can't accept these terms ;-)
>
>What terms could we accept?
If using that trademark has such restrictive conditions then I think
it's obvious that we do not want to use it.

>It seems that these restrictions are incompatible with the GPL. On the
>other hand, any trademark license would permit us to use their
>trademark, which we could not do otherwise. With this understanding
>these are not restrictions at all but liberations!
The trademark license applies to the trademark, not to the code, so this
is not relevant.

>DFSG #4 permits licences that require derived works to carry a
The DFSG is about copyright licenses, not trademarks.
I object to using the DFSG to evaluate trademark licenses.

-- 
ciao,
Marco