Re: Patch policy

[Alex Schuilenburg <alexs@ecoscentric.com>]

Jonathan Larmour wrote:
[...]
>>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> Incorrect. ECOS and the logo are *both* registered trademarks of Red 
>> Hat, so be careful there.
> 
> eCos is a *registered* trademark. The logo AFAIK isn't.

The logo *is* since it contains the words ECOS and ECOS is a registered 
trademark of Red Hat.  I should have been more specific:  Under 
trademark law, colour, style, font, case, etc all are ignored if the 
text is trademarked. As such, the logo is just a stylised version of the 
text and hence is covered by the ECOS trademark.

>  >  The TM superscript does indeed exist for the
> 
>> logo on all handouts given away by Red Hat and Cygnus,
> 
> 
> TM doesn't mean registered though.... specifically not in fact. I 

Correct.  It can be trademarked under common law - just harder to 
prove/defend.


> believe you that there may well have been handouts with the TM 
> superscript... in fact I've just looked and the stickers I have here do 
> have the TM I see. But the laxness in applying the TM as evidenced by 
> the existing public use of logos by Red Hat makes it very difficult to 
> enforce.

*Very* incorrect. Red Hat are *very* serious when it comes to defending 
their trademarks, and the trademarks do not have to be registered as you 
pointed out.  Not just the "Red Hat" trademark but other trademarks 
also. They have put companies out of business defending their trademark, 
the most recent was last March (IIRC) when they closed down some 
business that was selling versions of Linux with the same codename as 
their latest release.


> 
>  > and I have
> 
>> correspondence from Mark Webbink verifying this.
> 
> 
> He lumped the eCos registered trademark and other trademarks together if 
> you're referring to what I think you are.

If you're referring to what I think you are, then no :-)

And BTW, I believe you have to acknowledge trademarks by their owners. I 
don't think you can get away with "All registered Trade Marks are the 
property of their owners" anymore.  Std practice though is to be told of 
the infringement so you have the opportunity to put things right.  Just 
to be safe and proper, I do suggest you should put in a legal disclaimer.

IANAL
-- Alex

> 
> Jifl