The right license for logos and trademarks in a free software project

[Sheogorath]

Hello,

first of, this might not be the right mailing list, so feel free to
redirect me or answer directly instead of to the list.

I came to you, to ask about the right way to license a logo and Name
properly as part of a free software project. We, the Project
Hedgedoc[1] (formally known as CodiMD), are currently working on
rebranding the whole thing to solve some name conflicts. As part of
this we just created a new logo, came up with the name, etc. and we
were wondering what's the right license for those works. GNU and the
free software foundation, as well as OSI have guides for Source code,
documentation and alike, but I couldn't find any resources on things
like Logos and Names.

I know Fedora and the Fedora logo is owned by RedHat, and I'm quite
sure for other project exist similar constructs, but I'm not really
aware how this is set up. Any recommendations or guidance is very
welcome and I would love to hear back from you.

[1]: https://github.com/codimd/server

[Ben Cotton]

On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 8:58 AM Sheogorath
 wrote:
> first of, this might not be the right mailing list, so feel free to
> redirect me or answer directly instead of to the list.

This isn't the right list, but here's a quick answer.
> GNU and the
> free software foundation, as well as OSI have guides for Source code,
> documentation and alike, but I couldn't find any resources on things
> like Logos and Names.

I think the concern here is less about licensing and more about
trademarks. You can look at the Fedora Trademark Guidelines as an
example:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines
> I know Fedora and the Fedora logo is owned by RedHat, and I'm quite
> sure for other project exist similar constructs, but I'm not really
> aware how this is set up. Any recommendations or guidance is very
> welcome and I would love to hear back from you.

Ownership of the marks is another matter entirely.

Honestly, you're probably best served working with an attorney who
specializes in this (as in they are *your* attorney). Or you may
consider applying to a fiscal sponsor like Software Freedom
Conservancy: https://sfconservancy.org/projects/services/

I hope this helps!
BC

[Matthew Miller]

On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 02:57:43PM +0200, Sheogorath wrote:
> I came to you, to ask about the right way to license a logo and Name
> properly as part of a free software project. We, the Project
> Hedgedoc[1] (formally known as CodiMD), are currently working on
> rebranding the whole thing to solve some name conflicts. As part of
> this we just created a new logo, came up with the name, etc. and we
> were wondering what's the right license for those works. GNU and the
> free software foundation, as well as OSI have guides for Source code,
> documentation and alike, but I couldn't find any resources on things
> like Logos and Names.

Logos might fall under "content" rather than code. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:Main#Content_Licenses

Unlike with code, we permit licenses for content which restrict modification
as long as that is the only restriction.