[OSGeo-Board] FW: shirt logos

[Frank Warmerdam]

Arnulf Christl wrote:
> Against whom or what do we need any protection? What kind of protection
> are we really going to get?

Arnulf,

I think the protection is from other organizations using the OSGeo logo
as if it were there own, or as if they represent us.

> If you really want to know before switching - and as board member and
> voter you should very much feel obliged to - then read through this page:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_trademark
> In my opinion there are way too many backlinks to copyright, legal
> enforcement, commercial property ownership and licensing to make me like
> any of it in the context of OSGeo. We are not aiming at being yet another
> traditional company, we are a foundation.

I will say that I am very nervous about registering the trademark
because it seems that once you do that, you are in a position where
you are responsible for defending the trademark and that often seems
to end in threatening legal letters and so forth that could bring
the organization into disrepute.  At least I have had that impression
in the past with activities around the Linux (and I think Debian)
trademark.

On that basis, in previous discussions I felt we had general agreement to
take a fairly "light" approach to trademark activities.  I'm ok with
marking OSGeo as (tm) but I feel like we need to avoid putting ourselves
in the position of having legal enforcement obligations.  On that basis,
I would at least avoid going through the registration process in the
near future.

> Therefore I vote -1 on TM or (C) or (R) superscript in the logo or on the
> web page. If you like those superior letters then in Borgs name put an
> (O)pen there or a (F)ree or a (L)eft.

Clearly we need some additional discussion before we can come to any
consensus.

Best regards
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org