[TriLUG] trademarks (was: Re: gentle reminder)

[Kevin Sonney]

If anyone is wondering why I have kept my mouth shut up until this
point, it's because I have recently become a Red Hat employee. 

That being said, at the moment, I am not speaking for my employer. If I
was speaking for Red Hat, I would be posting from an @redhat.com
address. I am also not speaking as Chair of the LUG, as in that
capacity, I cannot endorse one distribution over another. 

All that being said :

On Wed, 2002-08-28 at 18:04, Ed Hill wrote:
>   3) Create your own distro.  In fact, you can copy and use every 
>      last *bit* of the Free and Open Source packages within Red 
>      Hat's distribution (which is nearly *ALL* of it) so long as 
>      you don't use Red Hat's name in your advertising or sales 

Or so long as you don't redistribute the parts you aren't allowed to
redistribute, or that are covered on non-redistributable licenses (i.e.
the IBM JDK, or Star Office & etc)

>      documents.  Go ahead and call your new distribution "Pink 
>      Hat Linux" and loudly proclaim "100% compatibility with 

Actually, under the trademark usage terms, you can't call it "Pink Hat
Linux" without getting into trouble, either. For what you can and can't
do if you decide to create your own distribution based on Red Hat Linux,
I recommend that you look at the Red Hat Trademark Guidelines at
http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/ - in this case, 
http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/page4.html section C
prohibits "Pink Hat Linux" - "Plays On Words" And Other Actions That May
Cause Confusion Are Also Prohibited

FWIW, this is not a new clause in Trademark law. Page 4, section C is
also the reason why you can't have a Clean-X brand of tissues, only
Jell-O brand gelatin can be called "jello," and lots of other examples I
can come up with.

Unlike restrictive copyright laws (*cough*SSSCA, DMCA*cough) trademark
laws are good things for the consumer and the company that owns the
trademark - The consumer can be sure that they are getting the real
thing, and the company can insure that what gets sold is what they
actually produced. 

Parodies are, of course, covered under fair use laws, but are a
different matter altogether. 

> ps - I'm not a lawyer.  I cannot offer legal advice.

ps - Reminder: I am a Red Hat employee, but do not speak for my employer
on this matter, etc, etc. If I did, this would be from an @redhat.com
address. I have, however, read the trademark terms front to back more
than once. it's a useful thing to know, because it doesn't apply to just
Red Hat Linux, but to a lot of things you use on a daily basis. It's
also useful to know some trademark law if you have ever been or intend
on being a writer.

pps - oh yeah - IANAL. I cannot offer legal advice. Consult with one if
you feel the need to do so. 

ppps - isn't having to re-rip all your cds into ogg a pain? Then again,
the sound quality and compression improvements seem to be worth it so
far. Long live grip. 

-- 
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--         Kevin Sonney         --
--  ICQ: 4855069  AIM: ksonney  --
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 Sometimes Life just kicks you in the nuts -- Ozzy Osbourne
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