For anyone interested in this topic, here is the clarification from the trademarks team about "Apache Pulsar Community".
--- The home of the Apache Pulsar Community is the ASF. The ASF, including the ALv2, the registration of trademarks and the ASF's policies around the use of marks, has been put in place to protect that community. The ASF ensures, amongst other things, that the community is a vendor neutral space where anyone who wishes to can collaborate on the development of Apache Pulsar on equal terms with all other contributors. The guardians of the Apache Pulsar community are the Apache Pulsar PMC. As such, the claim to represent the "Apache Pulsar Community" is only one that can be made by the PMC. Details: https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rba409e3b12067a2e69855ca57ced3fafe20bbeadedeb0441fe7d40c7%40%3Ctrademarks.apache.org%3E On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 6:39 PM Sijie Guo <guosi...@gmail.com> wrote: > Partick, > > I am not a legal expert to answer the trademark question. I will consult > the trademarks team for this. > > However, it is the PMC's responsibility to oversee the usage of "Apache > Pulsar" that follows the ASF policy. > > - Sijie > > On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 5:23 PM Patrick McFadin <pmcfa...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> "Apache Pulsar Community" is not the PMC and that is 100% not the "Apache >> Way™" If it said "Apache Pulsar Project" then I think that would be a >> mischaracterization. I've helped run over 500 Apache-related meetups over >> the past 10 years and myself and other organizers have always been careful >> to use the word "community" as the people and not the project. >> >> This makes the PMC look like some sort of powerful ruling body, which it >> isn't. The PMC can't tell people that they aren't a part of the community. >> How would you add this to your board report? There is nothing here that >> appears as a trademark violation or implication of ownership. >> >> Patrick >> >> On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 4:57 PM Matteo Merli <mme...@apache.org> wrote: >> >> > On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 4:26 PM Aaron Williams <aa...@wi5s.com> wrote: >> > > Meetups and the Umbrella Group- >> > > Having an Umbrella Group also prevents or at least makes it tougher >> for >> > the >> > > “wild west” of meetup organizations to happen. For Apache Hadoop, >> both >> > > Cloudera and Hortonworks sponsored competing meetups early on, which >> led >> > to >> > > tons of problems for that community around vendor neutrality. We can >> > avoid >> > > this can of worms for Apache Pulsar by providing oversight and >> guidance >> > > from the beginning. >> > > >> > > Thus, given the above and that it is better for the organizers, better >> > for >> > > the PMC’s responsibility to oversee vendor neutrality, and better for >> > users >> > > and potential users to manage meetups with a little more structure, I >> > would >> > > recommend that the PMC go forward with giving its blessing to the >> > Umbrella >> > > model. >> > >> > Aaron, >> > >> > Several PMC members have already asked you to rename the meetup groups >> > you have created, because using "Apache Pulsar Community" as the >> > organizer represents a big mischaracterization that wants to give the >> > impression that the Pulsar PMC is behind these meetups. >> > >> > I believe any other discussion around meetups cannot prescind from that >> > fact. >> > >> > Matteo >> > >> > -- >> > Matteo Merli >> > <mme...@apache.org> >> > >> >
