Re: Patch policy

[Jonathan Larmour <jifl@eCosCentric.com>]

Gary Thomas wrote:
> 
> I'm OK with this.  BTW, can we actuall use the eCos logo that's on the
> page?

An interesting point. Here's my interpretation (although IANAL):

By the strictest legal definition anybody should seek permission for use 
of trademarks. But that's true with _any_ use of trademarks so we couldn't 
even mention "eCos". As you can see, out on the net, that's not true, and 
it is well established that you cannot defend a trademark in one place if 
you've never defended it elsewhere, so we're pretty safe. And established 
practice (and case law) says you can, as long as there's no attempt to 
pass off, normally by acknowledging the trademark.

We also have a considerable defence in using it because of the continuity 
of "permission"... Red Hat established the eCos site on sourceware and 
have continued to allow us to use and enhance it.... this is just one of 
those enhancements. The fact it resides on a different machine should make 
no difference.

What we may need to have on there is a "Legal information" link to 
acknowledge that eCos/RedBoot and the logo are trademarks of Red Hat, or 
just written in small font text at the bottom.

Interestingly, the main s.r.c eCos and redboot websites have _never_ 
mentioned trademarks, nor has the logo ever had a (TM) superscript. The 
logo isn't a registered trademark AFAIK, so RH's legal protection is minimal.

Of course the other strong argument is that Red Hat don't really have any 
desire to make a fuss when the point is that they don't intend to assert 
control over eCos any more.

Jifl
-- 
eCosCentric    http://www.eCosCentric.com/    The eCos and RedBoot experts
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