board actions from VisCom

[Michael P. Gerlek]

CORRECTION:

We have just realized that the TrademarkGuidelines document we approved
had been changed last night by Arnulf to remove the references to formal
(TM) stuff.  This means that this morning's VisCom vote to approve the
Moz-based document is somewhat tainted.

As VisCom chair, I would like the board to first take an official
position on item (2) below before acting on (1), and then VisCom will
update the guidelines as required.

For the record, of the VisCom members mpg and Tyler are in favor of TM.
Arnulf is presumably against.  I don't know how Venka and Chris feel;
they can speak at the board meeting for themselves.  I think Lisa is
also in favor.  Alain has not expressed an opinion.

-mpg


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael P. Gerlek 
> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 10:03 AM
> To: warmerdam at pobox.com
> Cc: 'dev at visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org'
> Subject: board actions from VisCom
> 
> Frank:
> 
> From this morning's meeting, three requested actions for the board:
> 
> 
> (1) Review VisCom's trademark usage guidelines 
> (http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/TrademarkGuidelines) and 
> take one of the following actions:
> 
>   - approve as-is to be official OSGeo policy
>   - return to VisCom with minor semantic changes requested
>   - return to VisCom with major semantic changes requested
> 
> Note that VisCom plans to to significantly improve the FAQ 
> (http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/TrademarkFAQ), but keep 
> within the policies in the main document (and inherited from Mozilla).
> 
> 
> (2) Resolve the long-standing "TM" question -- specifically, 
> should we obtain formal trademark status for key OSGeo 
> branding elements?  VisCom is in favor of doing this.  This 
> action may require moderate expense and use of a lawyer, but 
> it out of VisCom's scope.  We suggest three trademark items:
> 
>   - the name "The Open Source Geospatial Foundation"
>   - the name "OSGeo"
>   - the compass logo
> 
> Note: it is not clear if the word "THE" is in our formal full 
> name or not.  VisCom needs to know this, to get our trademark 
> guidelines document correct.  Someone, probably a legal 
> person, would know this.
> 
> Note: depending on the disposition of item (3) below, our 
> actual logo might need undergo some small changes before we 
> formally register it.
> 
> 
> (3) Approve our request for $7200 for logo and branding work, 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/LogoProposal.  Note that if 
> we are going to do (2), then the logo rework will include 
> addition of a (TM) to it.
> 
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -mpg
>