TradeMarked Name --redhat-config-

[Paul Gear]

Alan Cox wrote:
> ...
>> putting the name of a commercial vendor in the library name is 
>> kinda 'blah' anyway.
> 
> 
> IMHO it is the same in all cases. It's about credit.  Whether you'd 
> keep the command line redhat-config-foo on a non RH system is a 
> different matter altogether.

With all due respect (i've never disagreed with a Linux luminary before
;-), there's something else here other than credit: Red Hat's trademark
guidelines: http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/guidelines/.
 From my reading of them, it is possible that it is a trademark
violation for the Fedora Project to make use of the name Red Hat (or
anything similar enough to be confusing), anywhere in its distribution.

In .../guidelines/page4.html it states:
	You may not use "Red Hat" or any confusingly similar mark as
	a trademark for your product, or use "Red Hat" in any other
	manner that might cause confusion in the marketplace, including
	in advertising, on auction sites, or on software or hardware.

Additionally, there appears to be no relevant exception made for Fedora
in .../guidelines/page9.html.

Now, the overall name of the product seems to be the main point of the
trademark pages, but it would seem incongruent to me (and i suspect to
lawyer-types as well - although i'm not one) that the guidelines for the
naming of a subset of the product would be any different to the overall
product.

Thus it would seem to me that one or more of the following are required:

1.  Red Hat change their trademark policy to either:
a) make it clear that the trademark policy applies only to the overall
distribution, not specific products, and/or
b) make a specific trademark policy exception for Fedora (and any other
distribution based upon it).

2.  Fedora rename or remove redhat-* packages to ensure that anyone
redistributing Fedora would not be in grey areas of the Red Hat
trademark guidelines.

3.  Depending on the outcome of 1. above, Red Hat take another approach
to their RPM package naming so as not to put any unnecessary blocks in
the way of the Fedora project.

Paul

P.S.  Despite what RPM stands for, it is still a trademark of Red Hat
(.../guidelines/page2.html) and could conceivably come under similar
trademark guidelines in the future (although i'm not sure what legal
difference registered vs. unregistered makes).
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