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Re: Patch policy


Gary Thomas wrote:

I'm OK with this. BTW, can we actuall use the eCos logo that's on the page?

An interesting point. Here's my interpretation (although IANAL):


By the strictest legal definition anybody should seek permission for use of trademarks. But that's true with _any_ use of trademarks so we couldn't even mention "eCos". As you can see, out on the net, that's not true, and it is well established that you cannot defend a trademark in one place if you've never defended it elsewhere, so we're pretty safe. And established practice (and case law) says you can, as long as there's no attempt to pass off, normally by acknowledging the trademark.

We also have a considerable defence in using it because of the continuity of "permission"... Red Hat established the eCos site on sourceware and have continued to allow us to use and enhance it.... this is just one of those enhancements. The fact it resides on a different machine should make no difference.

What we may need to have on there is a "Legal information" link to acknowledge that eCos/RedBoot and the logo are trademarks of Red Hat, or just written in small font text at the bottom.

Interestingly, the main s.r.c eCos and redboot websites have _never_ mentioned trademarks, nor has the logo ever had a (TM) superscript. The logo isn't a registered trademark AFAIK, so RH's legal protection is minimal.

Of course the other strong argument is that Red Hat don't really have any desire to make a fuss when the point is that they don't intend to assert control over eCos any more.

Jifl
--
eCosCentric    http://www.eCosCentric.com/    The eCos and RedBoot experts
--[ "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you ]--
--[  can rejoice because thorns have roses." -Lincoln   ]-- Opinions==mine


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