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From: Alex Schuilenburg <alexs@ecoscentric.com>
To: eCos Discussion <ecos-discuss@ecos.sourceware.org>,
	 ecos-announce@ecos.sourceware.org
Subject: eCos Trademark Usage
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:04:00 -0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <47D6BAD6.8050706@ecoscentric.com> (raw)

Dear All

I would like to notify you of the eCos Trademark Policy and FAQ 
published at:
  http://www.ecoscentric.com/trademark_usage.shtml

Why is eCosCentric enforcing the eCos trademark?
Trademark law ensures that a operating system calling itself eCos really 
is eCos, by which we mean the source of the operating system was from 
the recognised free public distribution of eCos 
[http://ecos.sourceware.org]. eCosCentric is enforcing the eCos 
trademark to prevent any one party from duping the marketplace into 
believing that the eCos it is providing actually came from the 
recognised free public distribution of eCos when it did not. Trademarks 
are important because they help to prevent confusion in the marketplace 
by distinguishing the source of a product, in this case eCos. Should 
eCosCentric elect not to enforce the trademark and logo, these can fall 
into common use and thereby become difficult to defend should a party 
decide to use these to describe an operating system that is not derived 
from the recognised free public distribution of eCos.

It is important for the eCos community that the trademark is both 
acknowledged and respected in order to be able to properly protect eCos. 
While the FSF protects the copyright and code base of eCos, the mark 
must be actively used in trade in order to be recognised and defensible. 
As eCosCentric are better placed than the FSF for this role, we acquired 
the trademark from the FSF shortly after it was donated to the FSF by 
Red Hat.

In order to properly define the parameters for the community and fair 
use of the trademark, eCosCentric created a trademark usage policy and 
guidelines based on the former guidelines of Red Hat, and incorporated 
parts of the Linux policy and guidelines from the Linux Mark Institute 
[http://www.linuxmark.org/]. We believe this policy allows the mark to 
be used freely by the eCos Community in a non-commercial environment 
while still being able to protect the mark.

As it has come to our attention that some community projects and 
commercial organisations are not abiding by the guidelines, we would 
also like to draw these guidelines to the attention of these bodies and 
ask them to please review their use of the trademark and comply with the 
guidelines.  Proper use of the eCos trademark not only will help protect 
eCos and the eCos community, but will also help protect your project and 
business.  After all, most of us want to keep eCos as the #1 Free Open 
Source RTOS.

Thanks for your support
-- Alex Schuilenburg

Managing Director/CEO                                eCosCentric Limited
Tel:  +44 1223 245571                     Barnwell House, Barnwell Drive
Fax:  +44 1223 248712                             Cambridge, CB5 8UU, UK
www.ecoscentric.com             Reg in England and Wales, Reg No 4422071

 **  Visit us at ESC Silicon Valley <http://www.embedded.com/esc/sv>  **
 **     April 15-17 2008, Booth 3012, San Jose Convention Center      **
 

                 reply	other threads:[~2008-03-11 17:04 UTC|newest]

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