On 02/20/2012 10:34 PM, Zeeshan Ali wrote: > Hi, > As you may or may not know, we have been working on a new GNOME > application, Boxes[1] that (among other things) enables users to easily > manage virtual-machines. This also includes ability to detect > operating-systems given an installation media and presenting an > intuitive and *impressive* UI to user to easily install different > operating systems with minimum or no interaction. Boxes makes use of a > new library, libosinfo[2] that provides information about operating > systems (which it internally keeps in an XML database). > > We really want (more like need) to show logos of different operating > systems to the user[3]. I sent a mail[4] to Fedora legal regarding this > and turns out that we can not use the logos like this unless we get > explicit permission from each trademark holder. Which is why I'm writing > to you folks now. Can we please get the permission to use Fedora logo in > this manner and distribute it along with Boxes or libosinfo? <Putting my Fedora Legal Hat on> I want to be very clear here. The issue that was presented to Fedora Legal for consideration involved whether it would be acceptable for Boxes to use the trademarked logos in the manner described without having explicit trademark permission from the trademark owners for that situation. Upon review, that approach was not approved by Red Hat Legal, because while trademark law permits the use of another's trademark in a referential way, as Boxes proposed doing to indicate the operating system, one may only use as much of the trademark as is necessary to make the reference. Here, the word mark alone (e.g., "Fedora" or "Microsoft Windows") is sufficient to describe the operating system, so there appears to be no reason that the logo is also needed to convey any necessary information. Now, with that said, if (and ONLY if), each of the trademark holders gave explicit and documented permission for their trademarks to be used in the manner that Boxes desires, then that use would be considered acceptable to Fedora/Red Hat. I have consulted with Red Hat Legal on whether it would be acceptable to grant permission for Fedora's trademarks to be used in the specific situation that Boxes has requested (using the Fedora logo in addition to the Fedora wordmark to indicate Fedora VM instances in the User Interface). Their advice was that Fedora can give permission if it wishes, via the Fedora Board. Please note that this would not be a universal grant of trademark rights, and the logo would not be permitted for use in ANY other situation except for the explicit case proposed by Boxes (attached for reference), with a modification so that the disclaimer says: "Any trademarks shown above are used merely for identification of software products you have already obtained and are the property of their respective owners." The copyright of the Fedora logo itself would remain with Red Hat, and no modifications are permissible to the Fedora logo file (although, it is freely distributable). >From a technical perspective, this also means that the icon could not live in libosinfo, because there is no reasonable way to expect that the icon would not be used in other contexts besides the one described above for Boxes. It should be possible for this icon to be part of Boxes directly, and only used within the restrictions of the previously described scenario, so this should not be construed as a blocker, but rather a technical note. Red Hat Legal also pointed out that they felt it would be incredibly unlikely that all of the other trademark holders would agree to a similar arrangement, and to make it clear that it would not be acceptable to use any trademarks in this manner without receiving explicit permission, even temporarily while waiting to receive that explicit permission. I hope this helps clarify things somewhat. ~tom == Fedora Project
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