Logo -- dog, tag (with element), but no hat?

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2005-08-23 at 18:57 -0700, Karsten Wade wrote:
> I'm going to pull the usual and ask you to read the list archives, where
> this has been beaten to death. Red Hat has a trademark of Shadowan, of a
> man wearing a fedora hat.  Red Hat has to defend that trademark in order
> to continue to be allowed to own the trademark.  That's trademark law.

So why can't Red Hat defend the same on Fedora(TM)?
I have no problem with that.  After all, they _do_ lay claim to the
trademark and they _do_ define it's guidelines on use.

If not, then why didn't they change the name to something else than
Fedora when they assumed the name from the University of Hawaii project?

> Maybe a different name would be better, but it's a little late for that.

Yeah!  Ya think?  Who didn't think this through?  Really?!

I mean, if the original move by Red Hat was to spin off an independent
project under its own autonomous control, why didn't they?

Why can't the hat be "controlled and defended" on a project founded by
and still largely controlled by Red Hat?  The use of the term "Fedora"
and its trademarks _does_ have limitations.

This is no different than when Red Hat first started enforcing its Red
Hat(R) usage guidelines.  If you do X, Y and Z, you can use it.
Otherwise, you can't.

"Fedora" is not public domain.  I fail to see the problem.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith     b.j.smith at ieee.org     http://thebs413.blogspot.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The best things in life are NOT free - which is why life is easiest if
you save all the bills until you can share them with the perfect woman