[Fedora-legal-list] Use of trademarked operating system icons (eg. Windows logo) in Fedora programs

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 04:23:04PM -0400, Tom Callaway wrote:
> On 04/20/2011 11:29 AM, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> > Our thinking has moved on a little bit though: What we propose to do
> > now is to grab existing icons from the guests themselves.  For example
> > if it was a Fedora guest we'd grab
> > /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/fedora-logo-icon.png out of the
> > guest (or better still, /etc/favicon.png[1]).  Almost all guests
> > contain their own icons as part of the base install, if you know where
> > to look.
> > 
> > We no longer need to distribute any icons.  Users install the guests
> > from other sources.
> > 
> > However the app will still *use* the icons (again, in a purely
> > informative, non-pejorative way), and display them in a way that will
> > still look very similar to the screenshots I showed in the previous
> > email.
> > 
> > What do you think about this plan?
> 
> I spoke to Red Hat Legal on this approach, and here are the relevant points:
> 
> 1. Distribution of the icons containing the logo files is not connected
> to whether the use is infringement or not (which makes sense, we don't
> get a free pass on using a trademarked logo improperly just because we
> didn't distribute it). This doesn't mean that we can distribute icons
> containing trademarks either, just that the two items aren't connected.
> 
> 2. With that said, the fact that the icon is _always_ coming from the
> VM, thus minimizing the chance of a VM being labeled with the wrong
> trademarked logo, is a good thing, and in fact, necessary.
> 
> 3. Red Hat Legal explains that the rule of thumb is this:
>  - If the wordmark (e.g. "Fedora") is sufficient to describe the item,
> then the logo use is not necessary, and thus, not permitted.
> 
> 4. This means that the scenarios you mocked up in vmm-with-logo.png and
> vmm-with-logo-2.png are not acceptable, because the wordmark is already
> in use as a descriptor, and is a valid choice given the UI.
> 
> 5. However, in vmm-icons-in-vmlist.png, using the wordmark in that UI as
> a descriptor would not be ideal, and Red Hat Legal agrees that use of
> the trademarked logos in that specific use case is acceptable (because
> of point #2).
> 
> 6. If you want to use the trademarked logos (including the Fedora logo)
> in any other fashion, you still need to get Red Hat Legal to sign off on it.
> 
> 7. I can find no evidence that Tux is a trademark, as mentioned earlier,
> so its use should be unencumbered (except for the license terms on the art).

Thanks, this is very useful.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
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