[CentOS-devel] Re: Using CentOS trademarks/artwork etc.

[Stephen John Smoogen]

On 8/22/07, John Summerfield <debian at herakles.homelinux.org> wrote:
> Axel Thimm wrote:
>
> >>
> >> What are the CentOS trademark guidelines? Currently there do not seem
> >> to be any listed on the website. There do not seem to be any in the
> >> included product, and there does not seem to be a registered
> >> trademark. I know this gets into the murky area of law, ip etc.. but
> >> it does come up and people's assumptions that they can use it for
> >> anything they want because it is not OBVIOUSLY registered, protected,
> >> or guidelined..
> >
> > I think CentOS should register the trademark in the countries this is
> > most important (US + EU?) and offer a review dependent usage: If a
> > derived product/project like mythcentos or maybe centosfirewall,
>
> I would be very surprised if registering CentOS as a tm had any
> implications for the words "mythcentos" or "centosfirewall,"
>
> If it did, then the same argument would have Dell's use of "Dell" as a
> trademark would prevent the Dellico families (
> http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?fid=7&yr=1920&ln=Dellico )
> from using operating a business, "Dellico Computer Systems," and that is
> ridiculous.
>
> As would be Red Hat's suing the Red Hat Society (my sister is a member),
> a social club whose distinguishing feature is their wearing a red hat.
>

Actually I remember it being the opposite problem in the late 1990's.
There was some problem with someone saying they represented the RHS
wanting to make sure that RH was not stealling the domain name as RHS
had a longer standing name association with redhat.com than say a
technology company. I think it was settled all amicably in the end.

-- 
Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"