Trademark defense -- you can help!
Red Hat Legal provides numerous services as counsel to the Fedora
community, including defending Fedora trademarks against possible
encroachment. Occasionally, people who have no connection to our
community attempt to use the Fedora trademark to signify business
efforts that have no connection to the Fedora Project, our
distribution, or the Fedora community.
Red Hat Legal is currently working on just such a defense. They've
asked me to pass on a request for assistance in gathering physical
evidence of our use of the Fedora logo worldwide prior to *January 30,
2007*.
Here's what Red Hat Legal needs. Please read this description
carefully, and DO NOT REPLY to this list with attachments. That will
keep the list usable by its many subscribers. Please reply directly
to the addresses listed at the bottom of this email, and only if you
have something that meets one or more of these criteria.
* An item bearing the current Fedora logo that was produced or
available in China prior to January 30, 2007 is optimal, but
anything available worldwide would suffice.
* Tangible objects -- paper brochures, CDs, buttons, mousepads,
balloons, webpage printouts with a print date from before 30
January, 2007, T-shirts, etc. -- that were in existence before that
date. For example, a T-shirt that says "Fedora 2005" on it would be
good, or perhaps one with just a release number that's before
January 30, 2007.
* We have a Fedora 5 CD, but any others from before 30 January 2007
would be good. (AFAIK Fedora Core 6 is the only other applicable
release, since FC5-FC6 were the two distros we produced with the
logo prior to January 30, 2007.)[1]
* We're looking for a a hard copy of this Linux magazine from
March, 2006:
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/2532
http://www.linux-mag.com/channel/back-issues/march2006
...plus any other magazines, ads, news articles, etc. from before
January 30, 2007 that talk about Fedora.
If it's not obvious from the object itself what the date is, Red Hat
Legal may ask you to sign an affidavit explaining what the object is
and how you know it existed before January 30, 2007.
Again, PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS LIST WITH ATTACHMENTS.
Photos or scans of anything like CD's, T-shirts, keyrings, mouse pads,
etc. are acceptable. You can email these directly to edutton at
redhat dot com.
If the item is paper (like the magazine), you can mail it directly to:
Erin Dutton
Red Hat Legal Department
Attention: Fedora TM items
1801 Varsity Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606
* * *
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/HistoricalSchedules
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
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