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List: kde-community
Subject: Re: KDE Apps name trademarks
From: Philippe Cloutier <chealer () gmail ! com>
Date: 2020-07-12 15:41:28
Message-ID: a24e04ca-5e5c-a4aa-e094-ae332d5d8e54 () gmail ! com
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Hi Jonathan,
Le 2020-07-08 à 12:12, Jonathan Riddell a écrit :
> Recently we've noticed some KDE apps ending up on the Microsoft Store
> uploaded by unknown third parties. Maybe to up some credit score for
> their developer account. Maybe to install bitcoin miners. We don't
> know the motivations. Since it's all free software the licence allows it.
>
> One option is to claim Trademark on all our app names. This isn't
> hard, we just add the ™ onto the name anywhere we have it on our
> website starting with kde.org/applications
> <http://kde.org/applications>. Some apps such as KOffice have done
> this in the past anyway. This doesn't cost anything, only a registered
> trademark (which uses the ®. logo) costs money. It might give us more
> ability to take down random people posting our software on app
> stores. It might also make us look more corporate than we want to
> look and put off Linux distros from shipping our software.
>
> Should we add ™ next to the app names?
As others have pointed out, depending on what precisely you are trying
to prevent, there may be other avenues than trademarking.
That being said, to answer your actual question, I would treat this in
several elements:
1. Do we want to trademark the names of more KDE products (I say "more"
since "KDE" is already trademarked, so arguably at least one product
is already trademarked). I personally have no strong opinion, but I
agree that trademarking can discourage modification. There are ways
to mitigate that, including publishing a trademark policy, offering
a contact point to ask about the acceptability of changes, and
facilitating renaming, for example by adding a compilation option to
set a different name. I would also suggest committing to publish a
list of all trademark enforcement actions done, so those who
consider modifying can get an idea of what will actually be accepted
or not.
2. If we do agree to trademark more names, which names? We tend to have
lots of names for lots of projects, many of which I suppose may take
a while to be sufficiently important to justify trademarking. I
propose a wiki page as a way to list candidates and poll developers
about each.
3. For those names we do trademark, how much should the ™ symbol be
used? I would not like seeing it everywhere, but I do not mind
seeing it in the About screen, for instance.
4. Who would own those trademarks?
>
> Jonathan
>
--
Philippe Cloutier
http://www.philippecloutier.com
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<p>Hi Jonathan,<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 2020-07-08 à 12:12, Jonathan Riddell
a écrit :<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CANX=XXNf3j1GxVLUVhShY9CJ68++jk_FTx5LNB-YBKd-tNpbrQ@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Recently we've noticed some KDE apps ending up on the
Microsoft Store uploaded by unknown third parties. Maybe to
up some credit score for their developer account. Maybe to
install bitcoin miners. We don't know the motivations.
Since it's all free software the licence allows it. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One option is to claim Trademark on all our app names.
This isn't hard, we just add the <span class="gmail-st">™</span>
onto the name anywhere we have it on our website starting with
<a href="http://kde.org/applications" \
moz-do-not-send="true">kde.org/applications</a>. Some apps such as KOffice have done \
this in the past anyway. This doesn't cost anything, only a registered trademark \
(which uses the <span class="gmail-st">®.</span> logo) costs money.
It might give us more ability to take down random people
posting our software on app stores. It might also make us
look more corporate than we want to look and put off Linux
distros from shipping our software.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Should we add <span class="gmail-st">™</span> next to the
app names?</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, depending on what precisely you are
trying to prevent, there may be other avenues than trademarking.<br>
</p>
<p>That being said, to answer your actual question, I would treat
this in several elements:</p>
<ol>
<li>Do we want to trademark the names of more KDE products (I say
"more" since "KDE" is already trademarked, so arguably at least
one product is already trademarked). I personally have no strong
opinion, but I agree that trademarking can discourage
modification. There are ways to mitigate that, including
publishing a trademark policy, offering a contact point to ask
about the acceptability of changes, and facilitating renaming,
for example by adding a compilation option to set a different
name. I would also suggest committing to publish a list of all
trademark enforcement actions done, so those who consider
modifying can get an idea of what will actually be accepted or
not.</li>
<li>If we do agree to trademark more names, which names? We tend
to have lots of names for lots of projects, many of which I
suppose may take a while to be sufficiently important to justify
trademarking. I propose a wiki page as a way to list candidates
and poll developers about each.</li>
<li>For those names we do trademark, how much should the <span
class="gmail-st">™ </span>symbol be used? I would not like
seeing it everywhere, but I do not mind seeing it in the About
screen, for instance.</li>
<li>Who would own those trademarks?<br>
</li>
</ol>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CANX=XXNf3j1GxVLUVhShY9CJ68++jk_FTx5LNB-YBKd-tNpbrQ@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jonathan</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Philippe Cloutier
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" \
href="http://www.philippecloutier.com">http://www.philippecloutier.com</a></pre> \
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