[Board] FOSS4G Trademark

[David William Bitner]

Much of this is documented -- http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G. See
particularly the last paragraph.


On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 1:40 PM, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com>wrote:

> Folks,
>
> I see one of the agenda items for the board meeting today (in about 90
> minutes) is:
>
> """
> Board, please clarify (brief) - is FOSS4G a trademark? Does the OSGeo Logo
> and brand appear at FOSS4G events ? --darkblue_b 08:20, 6 June 2013 (PDT)
> """
>
> I thought it might be helpful for me to provide my opinion in advance, and
> we can correct that in the meeting if someone thinks it is otherwise.
>
> 1) I do not believe FOSS4G is trademarked.
>
> 2) I believe Venka came up with the FOSS4G naming back around the time of
> the GRASS user meeting in Thailand (2002? 2003?).  It has been used ever
> since for the events in Japan.  He offered to let OSGeo use this for OSGeo
> events.
>
> 3) I do not believe that OSGeo ought to be trying to control what is or is
> not a FOSS4G event though we try to use this naming/branding for at least
> some OSGeo events.
>
> 4) We certainly would like OSGeo's logo, and branding to appear at FOSS4G
> events such as FOSS4G (Nottingham), FOSS4G NA, FOSS4G CEE and the Japanese
> FOSS4G events though we aren't necessarily in a position to force it.
>
> From my perspective I consider FOSS4G as closely related to OSGeo but
> think it would be counter productive and possibly overreaching to claim
> ownership or control of the name or events operating under the name.
>
> 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    | Geospatial Software Developer
>
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>
>


-- 
************************************
David William Bitner
dbSpatial LLC
612-424-9932
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