On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 04:13:24PM -0400, Yaroslav Halchenko wrote: > Hi Brian, > > Just to make sure: you are talking not about swirl alone, but rather > about swirl + word Debian. Is that correct? Both are now open-use. The only non-DFSG free logo would be the bottle logo, ISTR. (the font is DFSG free as well now, on it's own, which was a major theme blocker for a while) > > On Mon, 22 Apr 2013, Brian Gupta wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > I have been helping to field trademark inquiries for Debian since late > > February, and the issue of our Logo has come up a number of times. > > > Currently, our logo is not a registered Trademark, but is considered > > (and treated by our current Trademark policy) as a "common law" > > trademark, in that we have been using it to represent Debian for many > > years, and many people see it and recognize it as "Debian's logo". > > > I know there have been discussions in the past about moving forward > > with officially registering the logo, but these discussions seem to > > have not ended with a clear decision or agreement one way or another, > > hence the status quo of unregistered common law trademark. > > > Generally speaking, as a matter of law, it would be better if we > > registered our logo as our Trademark. We had also gotten advice from > > our legal counsel (SFLC) encouraging us to do so. > > > I don't believe any changes would be required to our Trademark policy > > to accomodate the change from "common law" to "registered" trademark, > > we'd just have the benefit that we'd have an easier time protecting > > it, if we ever found a need to do so. > > > Here is the Debian Trademark Policy 2.0 [1] guidance on using logos: > > > "Guidelines for Using Logos > > > - Any scaling must retain the original proportions of the logo. > > - Do not use the Debian logos as part of your company logo or product > > logo or branding itself. They can be used as part of a page describing > > your products or services. > > - You need not ask us for permission to use logos on your own website > > solely as a hyperlink to the Debian project website." > > > Some may wonder if Registering our logo as a trademark is possible > > with the logo under a fairly liberal Free Software license. The answer > > is yes, as Copyrights are a different set of rights than Trademark. > > Bear in mind or Logo is already one of our Trademarks, we just don't > > have it registered. > > > Another question that one might raise is, "What if the USPTO rejects > > our logo as too simple, and not creative enough?" In answer, this is > > not a criteria for acceptance. If the mark is distinctive, and unique, > > and isn't already registered, it doesn't really matter how simple or > > complex a design is. e.g. - Think of the "Nike Swoosh". > > > I would like to work to address what I perceive to be a bug, and get > > our logo official registered. I spoke to leader@ (Lucas) about this, > > and he said that I should first start a dicussion on -project laying > > out the pros and cons, with examples of what other similar projects > > are doing. > > > Pros: > > ----- > > - Makes it easier, legally speaking, to protect our trademark, if it > > ever came to it > > - When companies are doing trademark searches for logos in the > > trademark database, they would be discouraged from using our logo, as > > it is would be in the database. > > - If a company tries to register a logo trademark that is the same as > > ours, the USPTO should not allow it, since it is in their database. (I > > say should, as mistakes can happen) > > > Cons: > > ----- > > - Filing costs of ~$700 > > - Labor/work required to file (With assistance from SFLC, I am willing > > to do much of the work required.) > > - Required extra coordination with SPI > > - If someone has already filed our logo as a trademark, we will be > > forced into a situation where we need to deal with that. (I have > > already done a preliminary search of the USPTO database, and found no > > such occurrences, so feel this risk is minimal.) > > - In order to maintain the status of a federally registered trademark, > > the owner must file a statement of continued use and later, a renewal > > application. (Again more work, which I am willing to do.) > > > Other projects that have registered their logo: > > ----------------------------------------------- > > - Apache - Many trademarks, including the feather > > http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/list/ > > - OpenOffice - Seagull logo > > http://www.openoffice.org/marketing/art/galleries/logos/ > > - Gentoo Linux - G logo http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/name-logo.xml > > - Fedora - Multiple logos http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Logo/UsageGuidelines > > - Drupal CMS - Druplicon logo http://drupal.org/node/9068 > > http://drupal.com/trademark > > - Gnome - Gnome Foot http://www.gnome.org/foundation/legal-and-trademarks/ > > - Mozilla - Multiple logos (Firefox, Thunderbird and Mozilla) > > http://blog.mozilla.org/press/media-library/ > > - KDE - KDE and the K Desktop Environment logos > > http://techbase.kde.org/Template:KDE_Trademark_Notice > > > So far in my search of other large Free Software Projects that have a > > singular graphical identify, pretty much all have a registered > > graphical trademark, with the exception of the GNU project's "gnuhead" > > logo. (However, FSF does still treat it as a trademark > > http://www.gnu.org/graphics/agnuhead.html) > > > What do people feel about proceeding with this registration? > > > Thanks, > > Brian > > > [1] - http://www.debian.org/trademark > -- > Yaroslav O. Halchenko, Ph.D. > http://neuro.debian.net http://www.pymvpa.org http://www.fail2ban.org > Senior Research Associate, Psychological and Brain Sciences Dept. > Dartmouth College, 419 Moore Hall, Hinman Box 6207, Hanover, NH 03755 > Phone: +1 (603) 646-9834 Fax: +1 (603) 646-1419 > WWW: http://www.linkedin.com/in/yarik > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-project-REQUEST@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org > Archive: [🔎] 20130422201324.GM9056@onerussian.com">http://lists.debian.org/[🔎] 20130422201324.GM9056@onerussian.com > -- .''`. Paul Tagliamonte <paultag@debian.org> : :' : Proud Debian Developer `. `'` 4096R / 8F04 9AD8 2C92 066C 7352 D28A 7B58 5B30 807C 2A87 `- http://people.debian.org/~paultag
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