On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Graham Lauder <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wednesday 04 Jan 2012 13:18:51 Rob Weir wrote: >> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 8:02 PM, Graham Lauder <[email protected]> wrote: >> > On Wednesday 04 Jan 2012 11:13:20 Ross Gardler wrote: >> >> Sent from my mobile device, please forgive errors and brevity. >> >> >> >> On Jan 3, 2012 8:59 PM, "Pavel Janík" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/AOOLogo+proposa >> >> > > l >> >> > > >> >> > > Personally I think this is fine work, and since we've received no >> >> > > counter-proposals in the last month, we should go ahead and >> >> > > update the >> >> > >> >> > There is a TM in the image. Does Apache own the trademark >> >> > OpenOffice or Apache OpenOffice? >> >> >> >> Yes, in both cases. >> >> >> >> Ross >> > >> > Sorry to be a pedant, are you saying that we own OpenOffice as well as >> > OpenOffice.org >> >> The question Ross responded to was on "Apache OpenOffice", not >> "OpenOffice". >> >> Hope that helps. >> >> -Rob > > Sorry, the question specified two trade marks, neither of which was > OpenOffice.org. Now we know we have the OpenOffice.org gifted from Oracle, > but OpenOffice is a different brand all together. I just wanted to clarify, > do we now own OpenOffice (which we never have in the past) or when Ross said > "Yes to both." did he just accidentally lose sight of the lack of .org in > Pavels question >
Ah. I see. He didn't ask the question I thought he did. Sorry. It is a tough question to answer since talking about "owning" a trademark is already starting the discussion in a state of sin. A trademark is a right, a right basically to be free of unfair competition from others confusing your customers, or passing off their goods as being endorsed by you. The name we've chosen is "Apache OpenOffice". That is what we claim as the trademarked name, and which hopefully we'll register at some point. Claiming that as a trademark, and using it in public, gives us rights not only to that name, but also prevents others from using names that have a likelihood of confusion with that name. IMHO, and IANAL, if someone used the term "OpenOffice" to refer to desktop productivity application software they would be infringing on this trademark. This does not mean we "own" "OpenOffice" but that we own a minimal "confusion-free zone" around "Apache OpenOffice" and "OpenOffice.org" used in conjunction with software of this variety (office suites) and that any 3rd party use of "OpenOffice" is likely to confuse our users. Does that make sense? -Rob > Cheers > GL > >> >> > Cheers >> > GL
