On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 4:13 PM, Yaroslav Halchenko <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Brian, > > Just to make sure: you are talking not about swirl alone, but rather > about swirl + word Debian. Is that correct?
Yes, the swirl alone. > 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 [email protected] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] > Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CACFaiRwQx-X1Yj+FVX1p=+wkyxh3lxhh0+bpj+nfruyh-2o...@mail.gmail.com
