Cost of trademarking "OSGeo" - Board to decide go/no go

[Peter Moran]

There has been discussion about the foundation trademarking "OSGeo" and
"Open Source Geospatial Foundation".  Our legal resource reports that
the cost to file an application for a trademark is a minimum of
$1100-1500.

The board needs to decide direction here and provide funding if needed.
This can be a topic of discussion on Sunday/Monday.

Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Daehler 
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 6:19 PM
To: Peter Moran; 'richsteele at osgeo.org'
Subject: RE: and one more trademark thing

Hi Peter and Rich,

I apologize for taking so long to get back to you on this.  Very rough
estimate of the fees to file one trademark in the U.S. (including
attorney time to prepare the application) are: $1100-1500.  This is just
to file the application.  

Occasionally with some trademarks, you have problems with the trademark
office objecting to the mark or a third party opposing the application.
If this happens, additional fees will apply.  Based on what I've seen so
far, I don't have any reason to believe this would be the case with
"OSGeo" or the "Open Source Geospatial Foundation" (our informal Google
searches came up very clean) but that is difficult to know in advance.  

I've spoken briefly with Rich Foehr and his first concern was whether
there was anything in the OSGeo bylaws or about OSGeo's status as a
non-profit that would prevent Autodesk from providing the funds to
register the trademark.  Rich, do you know of anything?  

Thanks!
Jennifer

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Moran 
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 11:17 AM
To: rich at richsteele.org; Jennifer Daehler
Cc: richsteele at osgeo.org; Steele,Rich
Subject: RE: and one more trademark thing

Jennifer,

I agree with recommendation to trademark "OSGeo" and "Open Source
Geospatial Foundation". Any word back from Rich F.?  

Any idea how much it costs per trademark? The foundation members are
asking.

Thanks,

Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: rich at richsteele.org [mailto:rich at richsteele.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 2:39 PM
To: Jennifer Daehler
Cc: Peter Moran; richsteele at osgeo.org; Steele,Rich
Subject: Re: and one more trademark thing

You should also speak with Gary Lang.  If Rich4 doesn't approve  
funding, Gary can (if willing) find it in his budget to apply for  
registrations.  Although you'll have to convince him why that is money  
well spent...


Quoting Jennifer Daehler <Jennifer.Daehler at autodesk.com>:

> Sorry,
>
>
>
> Forgot to add one more OSGeo trademark-related comment.
>
>
>
> I need to discuss with Rich Foehr about whether Autodesk would be
> willing to fund any trademark registration for OSGeo.
>
>
>
> Depending on what he says, my recommendation would be that OSGeo try
to
> register with the USPTO:
>
> "OSGeo"
>
> "Open Source Geospatial Foundation"
>
>
>
> If Autodesk will only fund one registration, then I'd probably go with
> "OSGeo", though we can think about this more if it is the case.
>
> I don't really recommend trying to register the logo.  The "word" part
> of the logo would be fairly protected under the above registrations.
> Also, logo registrations can take a long time and get bogged down.  We
> also may have some copyright right in the logo that we could latch
onto.
> I think the word mark registrations give a little more bang for the
> buck.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Jennifer Daehler
> Intellectual Property Counsel
>
>
> Autodesk, Inc.
> 111 McInnis Parkway
>
> San Rafael, California 94903
>
>
>
> Direct       415 507-6553
> Fax          415 507-6126
>
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