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Trademarks
Karen M. Sandler
All Things Open
October 22, 2014
And Your Free Software Project
Hi! IANYL; TINLA
● Executive Director, Conservancy
● Board of Directors, GNOME Foundation
● Pro bono counsel, QuestionCopyright.Org
● Cyborg
What is a trademark?
● Brand management and identity
● Words or pictures
● It's about recognition
● Earned through use
● Not copyright
Trademark is all about confusion.
So what's all this ® TM
stuff?
There is an inherent tension
in trademark enforcement
for free software
...so we make policies,
which are tested.
Policies
● State explicitly what's permitted
(substantially unmodified versions,
identification)
● Naming conventions (fooPLUS, DifferentFoo)
● Merch
...so long as there's no likelihood
of confusion
We get all kinds of requests
● Stickers
● Academic papers
● Websites
● Domain names
● Project names
● Company names
“forced” to defend
Key Factors
● Similarity of the mark?
● Different markets?
● Overall impression
● Actual confusion
● Impact in the community
● “fair use”
The analysis may be different
under subtly different conditions
And it's important to keep
things in perspective.
This takes a lot of work!
Conservancy just won an
opposition proceeding.
There are many other areas
of confusion that have been
cleared up.
“Gittip has been a serviceable name for the past two
years, but it's not ideal. For most people, Gittip
doesn't have any relevant natural associations; it
doesn't suggest anything about our mission. It's hard
to spell, hard to pronounce, and hard to
remember. For people who know what git and GitHub
are the situation is worse, because Gittip puts us in a
box we don't want to be in. We're building a mass-
market product, not something for a tech niche. And
for pete's sake, my own kids confuse Gittip with
GitHub.”
Chad Whitacre
How do we prevent these
situations from happening in
the first place?
So how important are
trademarks?
Thank you
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