My questions about the new Trademark Guideline draft

Christoph Wickert christoph.wickert at googlemail.com
Wed Feb 22 21:55:57 UTC 2012


In the Board meeting today we agreed to collect all remaining questions
about the Trademark guidelines draft from
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pchestek/TMGuidelinesDraft
and send them to Pam or Fedora Legal.

While I agree to most of what is written or at least understand why it's
necessary to follow a clearly defined procedure, I am having serious
problems with the 'Ambassador giveaways' section. It reads:

> If the design is simply an unmodified Fedora logo, word-mark, or
> previously approved design, with nothing else, the merchandise is
> appropriate, and the material type/quality is acceptable, the request
> will be granted, and the Fedora Ambassador will be given a one-time
> permission to produce the specified non-software promotional goods in
> the amount requested. Any other request must have Board approval, and
> may require that the Ambassador produce a two item proof batch of the
> proposed non-software promotional goods. Please note that designs must
> be in compliance with the Fedora Logo Usage Guidelines, and all
> requests must be made at least one month before expected production of
> the non-software promotional goods. Trademark approval, if granted,
> does not constitute any budgetary or financial agreement to produce
> non-software promotional goods.

AFAICS this means
     1. Pre-approved design will be approved more or less automatically,
        nevertheless the permission is only for one time and we need to
        run in circles for every new batch even if absolutely nothing
        has changed. Is that true? We are using the same Ambassador polo
        shirts for ages now and neither the design not the quality has
        changed. It's still produced by the same vendor from the same
        master with the same material.
     2. In most cases it is not possible to produce two item proof, say
        two pens or shirts. What to do?
     3. What do we actually do with the two proof items? Do we send them
        to Raleigh where they will be archived?
     4. Would photos be sufficient?
     5. Would similar items by the same vendor be sufficient as proof?
     6. If it is possible, who will pay for the two item proof batch? 2
        polo shirts are over 50 EUR, with shipping to the US this is ~
        60 EUR. Or what about goodies that don't get approved? Will the
        community members have to take over the costs?
     7. Can we get rid of the one month clause? Last year we did polo
        shirts 5 days before Linux-Tag and they were delivered directly
        to the event. There was no time for an approval and even if we
        are not in a hurry "at least one month" seems way too long for
        me.
     8. Is legal really to decide what "acceptable quality" is?

I'm afraid that this section will make swag production much more
complicated and I therefor ask Pam and/or Fedora legal if we can make it
shorter/easier or remove it completely.

Kind regards,
Christoph



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