Re: similarities between logos for CLUSTER and Debian
On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 9:46 AM, Yaroslav Halchenko
<debian@onerussian.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 04 Jan 2015, Paul R. Tagliamonte wrote:
>
>> The debian swirl is trademarked, but freely licensed.
>
> I don't think so:
> http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4803:q33o33.2.1
> "The mark consists of a spiral formed with the style of a paintbrush
> stroke with the word "debian" written."
>
> i.e. swirl on its own is not trademarked, thus could be freely used for
> other projects, thus all the reports from users on "infringement"
> through the years nearly always lead to "relax, everything is alright"
> response ;)
Yaroslav contacted us at trademark@ and we wanted to clear up any confusion:
* The currently trademarked logo is "swirl with debian written below
it" - the word "debian" _is_ part of said trademark. This was not our
intention, but due to confusion in the legal and administrative ether,
that's what happened. What we understood to be a procedural request
for clarification led the USPTO to change the specimen we wanted to
register. When we realized this, it was too late to change much. Legal
advice was to let it run through and _not_ try to change anything at
that point
* Yes, we are filing for "swirl only" on its own as well
* Once we have "swirl only", we will look at if International
registrations via the Madrid Protocol
* WANAL, but as we understand it the current situation already gives
us a legal standing if we need it
As these processes are slow as molasses... please bear with us.
Also, if you have a usage request, question, or a notice of
infringement, please poke us at trademark@ or at least CC us.
Richard
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