Re: Answers to questions raised about registering the Debian Logo as our trademark
Brian Gupta <brian.gupta@brandorr.com>
> I finally had a chance to discuss with our legal counsel, and have
> some answers to the questions raised in the discussion.
Thanks for this. It covers all I remember. One small question:
> 3) Should we register in the US only or register internationally?
> A: Being as US registration is mandatory to extend internationally
> start with the US, and then later Debian can make a decision on
> international registration.
What's the source on that? I thought I'd seen trademarks start in
other places and then extend internationally.
> 4) What is the impact of registering in the US only?
> A: We would still only have Common law protection in those countries
> we don't register the logo. We'd gain no benefit in those
> jurisdictions, but it wouldn't hurt us either. [...]
Well, I've few US customers buying debian, it would probably be
allowed as honest description, and I'm not in the US anyway, so I
think I don't care too much about the US registration.
I still feel that this seems like a waste of project money (are many
infringers in the US anyway?) and potentially a blank cheque ($3347
plus maintenance and costs of enforcement necessary to prevent it
becoming generic), but I'd prefer those who are based and trading
significantly with the debian logo in the US to make the decision.
Shall I poll http://www.debian.org/consultants/#US or has someone?
Hope that explains,
--
MJ Ray, Software Engineering Specialist, www.software.coop member.
Emails 2x most days: please use info@software.coop for faster answer.
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