PROJECT BLACKHAT

[Mike A. Harris]

patrick quinn wrote:
> hello team fedora
> me and my team are curentuly working on a reactos (http://www.reactos.org)
 > based os called blackhat which is open source and 100% free.blackhats
 > party piece is its ability to run not only win32 but linux applications
 > nativily.blackhat plays host to the latest open source and gnu software
 > and environments .it will ultimately use the gnome interface as the
 > default gui and have xgl alike abilites.i was wondering if you would
 > be willing to put your name to this project amd give you very minor
 > help and in exchange you will have permenant ad space at the top of
 > are webpage and other fedora promotions troughout the os (eg in the
 > welcome center).we will not ask anything of significance from you
 > just giving blackhat some of that unmistakeable fedora charm.i
 > personally am a huge fan of your os and hence the reason we have come
 > to you.we would really aprecieate a reply be it negitive or positive
> seasons greetings
> team blackhat

Hi there,

This is an interesting looking project.  It's been quite a number of
years since I checked up on the progress of the ReactOS project, but
nice to see it's still active.

IANAL, but one rather important thing which your project may not be 
aware of, is that under trademark law, one must be careful not only to 
avoid infringing directly upon a trademark, but also to avoid using what 
the law calls "confusingly similar" terms as well.  As an example, if an 
entrepreneur tried to open a new restaurant chain with the name "Burger 
Queen" or "Sausage King", the law would probably find these terms to be 
"confusingly similar" to "Burger King" and the owner of the Burger King 
trademark would have to defend their trademark by sending a legal notice 
of trademark contention (or whatever the correct legal term is).

Trademark law is pretty much "defend it or lose it" and so trademark 
owners who are aware of mark violations, or usage of confusingly similar 
marks don't have much choice but to defend their marks or risk losing them.

Red Hat has put up their trademark guidelines document to provide 
guidance on appropriate use of Red Hat's trademarks, as well as 
providing some general trademark related information to help ensure that 
others do not intentionally or unintentionally violate Red Hat's 
trademarks or use confusingly similar terms.

I highly recommend reading the Red Hat Trademark guidelines, which can 
be found at:  http://www.redhat.com/about/companyprofile/trademark

Here is a direct link to the PDF document:
http://www.redhat.com/f/pdf/corp/RH-3573_284204_TM_Gd.pdf

Have a look at page 3, section C, which covers plays on words, and 
"confusingly similar terms" which may cause confusion in the 
marketplace.  Here is an excerpt:

	C. “Plays On Words” And Other Actions That May Cause
	 Confusion Are Also Prohibited
	...
	Some examples of prohibited uses include, but
	are not limited to, “Red Cap” Linux, “Sombrero Rojo”
	(“Red Hat” translated into Spanish) Linux, “Redd Hatte”
	Linux, “RH” Linux, and “Green Hat” Linux.



Since "Green Hat" is directly refered to in the Red Hat trademark 
guidelines as being one example of a confusingly similar mark which 
would be prohibited.  I think it would be safe to also assume that 
"Black Hat", "blackhat" or more generically "$any_color 
$any_type_of_hat" would equally be considered to be prohibited.

My suggestion, would be to change the name and totally avoid any 
possible chance of potentially stepping on trademark related issues.

You could still keep a similar theme of "$color $something", just don't 
use "Red" or "Hat" or any other word that means "hat" or is a type of 
hat, and you're probably ok.  In the past, there have been "Blue Sky 
Linux", "Green Frog Linux", "Yellowdog Linux", "Black Flag Linux", "Pink 
Tie Linux", and "White Box Linux" that I'm aware of, and probably a 
number of others as well.  As far as I recall those names were all ok, 
although as I said above, IANAL.  ;o)

Here are some ideas:

"Black React"
"Black Reaction"
"Black Force"
"Black Ham"

I've no idea if any of those suggestions would be considered confusingly 
similar either of course, so if you use one of them and get legal papers 
in your mailbox, don't blame me!  ;o)   If in doubt though, it is best 
to directly consult with an intellectual property attourney.

Anyhow, since I've seen these sort of trademark issues arise in the 
past, and sometimes people end up getting upset.  I thought I would give 
a heads up before people print out any company letterheads with names on 
them which might be considered to be in conflict with Red Hat's marks.

Hope this helps.



P.S.  Don't hate the players...  hate the game...  ;o)


-- 
Mike A. Harris

Come and join us on the #fedora8 IRC help forum on irc.freenode.net