Dear All, Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexey Vasyukov, I work for VDEL (Red Hat Master Distributor for Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe). And it happened so, that I was a part of the "Russian Fedora" initiative team from the very beginning, since it was first time presented by Red Hat on Russian Open Source Summit in October, 2008. Since the initiative was announced when Fedora Trademark Guidance had not been set finally, there is a number of issues that were solved that moment on "Ok by Red Hat" basis. Now the Trademark Guidance is complete and we would really like to discuss all the necessary approvals and license agreements. So, let me describe the questions to solve: 1. The name of the initiative itself ("Russian Fedora"). The initiative was presented by Red Hat to the Russian Ministry of Telecommunication under this name. The main goal of that discussion was to tell the Ministry why it is a bad idea to create own "Russian Linux" and why global collaboration is much more effective for solving their strategic tasks. (Official press-release from the Ministry - <a href=http://minkomsvjaz.ru/news/xPages/entry.7938.html>http://minkomsvjaz.ru/news/xPages/entry.7938.html</a> , details in English, for example, -<a href="http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/02/fedora-as-basis-of-russias-operating.html">http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/02/fedora-as-basis-of-russias-operating.html</a> ). The initiative is, of course, an informal entity. It has no own legal status. It is a community project sponsored by VDEL, VNIINS, AjTi and some other companies. We internally consider it as some kind of "Russian club of Fedora supporters". This "club" acts, first, as an "umbrella" for local Russian Linux User Groups and, second, as a "bridge" between the Community and the Ministry. As far as we understand the current Trademark Guidance, we need some kind of license agreement for using name "Fedora" as part of the name of local initiative. Is it true? What is required from our side as next step? If necessary, we can include in the license agreement any reasonable explicit restrictions like "the name Russian Fedora can be used only to identify the community initiative and related community projects that are not recognized legal entities" or whatever you consider necessary. We are completely flexible here. We really need the name only for community non-profit initiatives sponsored by a number of different organizations to show both the Community and the Ministry that these initiatives are related to Fedora. 2. The name of the website (russianfedora.ru) We know current policy regarding community domains. And, we guess, our case falls into the category<tt> </tt><a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Local_community_domains#Self-purchased_domain"><tt>https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Local_community_domains#Self-purchased_domain</tt></a> Just to make it clear - we have nothing against using <tt>"ru.fedoracommunity.org" domain</tt> but we really can not switch to it just now. The problem is the initiative was already presented by Red Hat to Russian Ministry of Telecommunications as "Russian Fedora" (see above). So, we can not just drop current website domain name - it has pretty strong visibility. We would offer to use <tt>"ru.fedoracommunity.org"</tt> now as synonym for "russianfedora.ru" and we will try to promote <tt>"ru.fedoracommunity.org"</tt> as the main domain name in the future. As we understand, in this case we need a license agreement for the domain name "russianfedora.ru". What is required from our side as next step? 3. The logo for the initiative. For the moment local initiative has no approved logo and it is really bad - people can be confused where is world-wide Fedora and where is local "Russian Fedora" initiative. So, we used experience from <a href=http://www.projetofedora.org/><tt>http://www.projetofedora.org/</tt></a> as an inspiration and created two proposed logos. Drafts are in attachment. If possible, we would like to <tt>use the first one as the logo of local "Russian Fedora" initiative because it was used on the meeting of Red Hat with Russian Ministry of Telecommunication.</tt> <tt>Is it acceptable? Do we need specific license agreement for the logo?</tt> <tt>4. Non-software goods.</tt> <tt>For the promotion of the local initiative and global Fedora we would like to produce different non-software goods (pens, t-shirts, pins, stickers, etc.)</tt> <tt>We do not have a detailed plan just now. The goods are intended to be produced on demand. Estimated number of good of all kinds - about 200 items per year. Of course, we are ready to submit design for your approval before producing if necessary.</tt> <tt>The main question from our side now - which logo is it better to use for the goods we produce locally? We can use global Fedora logo, it will make the goods somehow "associated" with world-wide Fedora Project. Or we can use local logo, it will make the goods somehow "associated" with local Russian Fedora initiative. Do you have any policy or recommendation? And what is the procedure to get license for this usage of Trademark?</tt> <tt>One "special case" - we would like to produce DVDs for free shipping to regions with bad Internet access. DVDs will contain local-specific Remixes (for example, Fedora Remix adapted for Russian schools). Do we need specific license for it?</tt> <tt>Thank you in advance for your help!</tt> <tt>If you need any additional information - let me know.</tt> <tt>Best regards,</tt> <tt>Alexey Vasyukov</tt> --- Alexey Vasyukov Consultant VDEL Ltd. Dmitriya Ulyanova str. 16/2, office 535-536 Moscow 117292 Russia Tel.: +7 495 956 68 95 Fax.: +7 495 956 28 78 Mobile: +7 926 550 89 60 alexey.vasyukov@vdel.com <a href=www.vdel.ru>www.vdel.ru</a>