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I just received the paperwork certifying that "GENTOO" is now a |
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registered trademark of the US. What that means is that Swift's notices |
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of infringement now have not only the force of (US) law behind them, but |
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a bit more urgency, too, since we are required to protect the trademark. |
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|
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So, here's what we're going to need: |
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|
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1. All Gentoo docs need some sed magic to put the registered trademark |
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symbol (that R-in-a-circle thingy) after "Gentoo" wherever it is |
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used. (Alternatively, one can use the words "Registered in the U.S. |
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Patent and Trademark Office" or "Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.") |
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I'm not sure right now what needs to be done with text docs (such |
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as man pages). |
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2. We need to establish procedures to identify and challenge the use by |
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others of conflicting marks. We have 13 trustees right now, so my |
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feeling is that we should have one person whose major trustee job |
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is dealing with this issue, and we should probably also have a backup |
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person for those times when the lead is unavailable. |
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3. We need to decide if we want to file in ther countries. Right now we |
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have only done so in the US. I have no idea what the cost involved |
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would be. |
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4. The foundation must submit a declaration of continued use between the |
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fifth and sixth years after the registration date, otherwise we lose the |
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trademark. Filing that declaration also gets us certain rights of |
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incontestability, so it's a darn important thing. |
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5. The foundation must renew the trademark within ten years of the |
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registration date. Incidentally, the official registration date is |
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12 July 2005. After the first ten years the requirement is a renewal |
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every additional ten years. |
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|
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-g2boojum- |
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-- |
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Grant Goodyear |
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Gentoo Developer |
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g2boojum@g.o |
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http://www.gentoo.org/~g2boojum |
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GPG Fingerprint: D706 9802 1663 DEF5 81B0 9573 A6DC 7152 E0F6 5B76 |