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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    KOfficeSource and KOffice
From:       Inge Wallin <inge () lysator ! liu ! se>
Date:       2008-01-14 7:28:26
Message-ID: 200801140828.26839.inge () lysator ! liu ! se
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Hi KOffice developers,

It has come to our (KOfficeSource's) attention that there are some questions 
as to our use of the KOffice name. In particular, we need to resolve the 
following issues in coordination with the KOffice project members.

Please remember when you read my description of the problem below that I am no 
lawyer. I may use some words in a way that a lawyer would not, or I may have 
misunderstood some terms. If you find a blatant error, then please point it 
out so we can get to the bottom of the issue.

The problem is with the name KOffice itself. There is no registered trademark 
for KOffice, but that doesn't mean that there is no trademark. The fact that 
the name "KOffice" has been used for a long time to describe a certain 
application suite means that not anybody can use the name as they please. The 
trademark itself is owned by the KDE e.V since it was transferred to it long 
ago by the people who came up with the name.

In this particular case there are several things that make the problem tricky:

 - The people involved (the inventor of the name, and the developers of the 
applications) are from many different countries with different laws.

 - The people involved have very varying degrees of their involvements. Some 
have invested very much time, some have just contributed a simple patch.

The e.V has started to dig into this problem, as the entity with the most 
legal know-how around KDE. We are greatful for their help to untangle 
everything.  In this process we became aware that you, the current koffice 
developers, count very much.  So that's why we would like to have your 
opinions on the following questions.

So, *IN YOUR PERSONAL OPINION*:

 * Should the KDE e.V be allowed to sublicense the KOffice trademark to 
anybody to use? Under which general conditions?

 * Should KOfficeSource GmbH in particular be allowed to use the 
wordmark "KOffice" in their (our) name?  Under which particular conditions 
(ownership, board, actions, etc)?

Remember that this is a very muddy legal issue. Your opinion counts, but there 
are no veto rights, as the status isn't investigated yet.

You can state your opinions as a reply to this mail in the mailing list or as 
a private mail to the e.V board (kde-ev-board@kde.org).

	-Inge
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