Re: Web guidelines for use of GNOME Trademark

[Tim Ney <ten gnome org>]

Alan,

On Fri, 2003-11-21 at 18:57, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Gwe, 2003-11-21 at 23:24, Tim Ney wrote:
> > gnome.org. Anyone wanting to use the trademark, will be able to file the
> > agreement either on-line or by printing out, signing and returning to
> > GNOME Foundation by post.
> 
> Providing they are Americans and not very bright ones.

There are some Traditionalists left in the U.S.  

> Missing a privacy statement.

Can you point to an acceptable one?
 
> So in summary, you've taken a free software project logo, used boiler
> plate american only terms, excluded almost every developer from the
> right to apply to use it, given yourself the right to inspect their
> house if they could and did sign it, and made no privacy promise of any
> kind.

Much of TM License Agreement language is pro forma and, thus,
boilerplate to conform to U.S. trademark law.  The points you raise
are are valid and I have asked the trademark lawyer to review them.

> Now the logo does need protection, but this is most emphatically not the
> way to do it. It is a hard problem too as the Debian discussion and
> ongoing problems getting it right show.

The board looked at the Debian logo guidelines.  Of course, Debian has
two (open use & official use) where GNOME has only the one foot.

Thank you for taking the time to read through the Agreement and
submitting your comments.

tim