2009/10/10 Martin Dengler <[email protected]> > b) what feedback from the SoaS / Sugar Labs community was sought > before Solution Grove registered a domain name that was the exact same > as a distribution the creation of which was substantially not done by > Solution Grove (I was not involved at this point). >
I'm new to the list, but to me http://sugaronastick.com is a very interesting case. I didn't realise this site *wasn't* endorsed by Sugar Labs, given that there is so much Sugar Labs branding on the site. Solution Grove is using Sugar Labs' registered trademark prominently on the front: the pictures of the USB sticks, the scrolling photos and very prominently at the bottom. Without consent, it's very likely that this is trade mark infringement. Therefore, I can only assume that there was very explicit consent granted. I understand that the test for trademark infringement is likely consumer confusion. http://sugaronastick.com is using typefaces, colour schemes that seem to be designed to show that Solution Grove is associated with Sugar Labs. I personally was confused, especially as the site is using Sugar Lab's registered intellectual property. There's another discussion though: is "Sugar on a Stick" a trade mark? While (as far as I know) Sugar Labs has only registered "Sugar Labs", my impression is that "Sugar on a Stick" is being used as an unregistered trademark by Sugar Labs and the wider community. To me the term Sugar on a Stick only means designates thing, which is Sugar run via a USB device (or possibly emulation or virtualisation). On the flip side, it is partially descriptive, so there's an argument that Sugar on a Stick can't function as a trade mark. Still, on the face of it, I think there's a strong chance that a court would find that Sugar on a Stick is a trade mark. Therefore, just for the avoidance of doubt, I would have assumed that there would have been explicit consent granted. Could someone fill me in the details of what actually happened? Regards, Tim
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