Re: Minutes of the Board meeting of October 29th, 2013

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org> wrote:
> > Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org> wrote:
> > > I for one am not happy with this situation. I remember that, years ago,
> > > Luis wanted to find an alternative way which wouldn't imply these strict
> > > guidelines. But to be honest, if there's no other way, then I think I'd
> > > like to question the need to trademark the logo.
> >
> > Can you clarify a bit? You think that anyone should be able to use the
> > logo in any way?
>
> I think that if our trademark guidelines restrict too much our extended
> community (by extended, I mean groups like downstreams, LUGs, etc.),
> then things are broken.

I guess that depends on what you mean by "too much". We certainly
don't want to be draconian about it (an aside: any trademark usage
issues I have been involved in have been dealt with in a friendly
manner). At the same time, I think it is desirable to have guidelines
which help people to use the logo and name effectively.

> This could be because the guidelines are unnecessarily too strict or
> because the trademark requires too strict guidelines, in which case the
> trademark is actually hurting us, probably more than it protects us.

Do we have examples of the guidelines "hurting us"?

In the Ubuntu GNOME case, I think it's fair to ask about the logo,
irrespective of the trademark guidelines. Their logo [1] is
essentially the same as the GNOME logo itself; some differentiation
seems beneficial for both them and us. We don't have to be unfriendly
about it, but then a dialogue about how they can help to support the
GNOME brand doesn't seem like a bad thing.

> Btw, I suddenly wonder: if what is trademarked is the "foot + GNOME
> text" image, then is usage of only the foot covered by the trademark?

Indeed. The trademarks page doesn't include a specimen of the logo
mark without the text:
http://www.gnome.org/foundation/legal-and-trademarks/

Allan

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/Artwork/Graphics?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=roundel48.png