[MeeGo-community] MeeGo Marketing: branding issues and proposals

[Dave Neary]

Hi,

Julien Fourgeaud wrote:
> Problem: MeeGo Trademark usage not allowed for grass root initiatives
>                    MeeGoLandia, a MeeGo conference in Tampere, Finland,
> aiming at
>                    increasing the awareness of MeeGo over there, has
> been asked to change
>                    their name by the Linux Foundation because of
> Trademark issues.
> Solution: Have clear guidelines on what the Trademark protects and why,
> so that we
>                    the community could still use the name to promote the
> brand.

Trademarks are always tricky for free software projects, because of the
way trademark law works (and, more importantly, is perceived to work) in
the US: I've written about this a couple of times:
http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/06/16/feed-icon-madness/ and
http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2008/04/28/trademarks/

The SFLC legal primer I link to in the second article is definitely
worth a read, if you have a spare half hour. And the comments on that
blog post are worth a read too (if only to correct what I got wrong!).

In this specific case, it seems like the MeeGo trademark would not have
a claim over the use of MeeGo in an event name.

Looking at the trademark registration:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:mi6n4v.3.2 the
MeeGo trademark covers the following domain of use:
> IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Operating system software;
> software for use in developing, executing, and running other software on
> mobile devices, computers, computer networks, and global communication
> networks; computer software development tools; computer software for use
> in transmitting and receiving data over computer networks and global
> communication networks; computer software for managing communications
> and data exchange among and between mobile devices and desktop
> computers; computer middleware, namely, software that mediates between
> the operating system of a mobile device and the application software of
> a mobile device; computer application software for mobile phones,
> namely, software for facilitating voice and data exchange and data
> communication among and between mobile devices

No mention of events there. For comparison, the infamous Web 2.0
trademark registered by O'Reilly is here:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4006:7vdj3s.2.3

So if I were the MeegoLandia organisers, I would politely decline to
change the name on trademark grounds, but would ask the Linux Foundation
person if perhaps they had suggestions for a better name.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
maemo.org docsmaster
Email: dneary at maemo.org
Jabber: bolsh at jabber.org