Re: [gentoo-trustees] potential abuse of IP

[Sven Vermeulen]

On Tue, Aug 17, 2004 at 07:12:19PM -0400, Joshua Brindle wrote:
> Aside from people selling stuff with our logo/name how does trademark
> law work on something like
> http://www.gentoo-wiki.com
> ?

We will always need to take a look at each individual request and/or site. I
believe most institutions use this "deny by default, accept by voting"
mechanism (although this "voting" shouldn't be taken too seriously).

I agree that we need to make a clear statement on _when_ the Gentoo name
and/or logo _can_ be used. However, I do feel that this text should make
clear that it contains guidelines and not rules. I.e. the Gentoo Foundation
has the last word on when the Gentoo name/logo can be used, regardless if a
site adheres to the guidelines or not.

We can consider altering the Gentoo Logo a bit and use this altered version
for non-official sites. For instance the Gentoo "G" with an "f" embedded
(for "friend"). Just brainstorming here. Yes, I know, that makes the whole
a bit amateuristic. 

Regarding the use of the logo, I feel that we should allow it as much as
possible as long as it's used to present the Gentoo distribution (i.e. on
sites that provide a list of distributions, or on news items regarding a
distribution, ...). 

When this isn't the case, the logo could still be used but it should not be
prominent on the medium and a different logo should take the most active role
on the overall design.

For instance, when talking about t-shirts, the overall idea is to allow the
use of the Gentoo logo on it as long as it isn't the biggest logo on the
t-shirt (for instance t-shirts for Gentoo-specific LUGs). An exception can
be made (by the GF) when each sold t-shirt provides some funds for the GF,
but this should be seen on a case-by-case basis.

Regarding the use of the name, I agree that we must take care that it cannot
be used to trick users into thinking that they're visiting a Gentoo-official
website (deliberately or not). For instance, http://www.gentoo-wiki.com,
although a great project, isn't official while I've had some people think it
was (happens when you're in charge for documentation :) Yet I don't think we
should say "nay" to such names. On the contrary, I believe it is far better
for Gentoo if more of these sites would emerge.

What we can do is require that the Gentoo name is used only when the site
makes it very clear that it isn't an official Gentoo website. For instance,
when I visit g-w.com (using links btw) I do read that "This is not official
documentation" but it isn't placed on the first line (there's a message
about gentoo-portage.com first). 

Solutions to this particular case could be (one or more):
- request that "Unofficial Gentoo documentation" is placed in the title
- request that "The unofficial Gentoo documentation website" is the first
  sentence to be seen on the site in a fontsize not smaller than the regular
  size minus 1
- request that "This is no official Gentoo website" is placed on the bottom
  of each page and with a contact e-mail address for _that_ site

We should also take care that we don't loose our community websites. In my
opinion, when a site prominently sais it is a "Gentoo community" website 
(for instance the "Gentoo Italian Community Website") I'm all in favor of
having them use the "Gentoo" name without further restrictions (still with
the "GF has final saying" clausule). 

Remember, Gentoo is for the community, by the community. It wouldn't be fair
if we restricted the use of the Gentoo name to Gentoo-official websites
only.

Wkr,
    A very sleepy Sven Vermeulen

-- 
 ^__^   And Larry saw that it was Good.
 (oo)                                      Sven Vermeulen
 (__)   http://www.gentoo.org              Documentation & PR