Re: Please comment on trademark guidelines

On Tuesday 29 September 2009 09:24:45 Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-09-29 at 08:45 +0100, Dave Page wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 10:28 PM, Joshua D. Drake
<jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 10:26 -0700, Josh Berkus wrote:
> > >> Advocacy geeks,
> > >>
> > >> Based on requests for clarification from vendors, Dave Page crafted
> > >> this draft trademark policy for use of "Slonik":
> > >>
> > >> http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Trademark_Policy
> > >>
> > >> Please comment on this policy here or on its discussion page. Please
> > >> no armchair lawyering, unless you *are* an attorney; we just want to
> > >> make sure that this policy encompasses desired community uses, not its
> > >> legal pedigree.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks.
> > >
> > > Uhhh what trademark?
> >
> > The 'Slonik' elephant logo has been a trademark owned by Marc for years.
>
> A few comments then:
>
> - Many of us know that "PostgreSQL" is registered as a trademark. A
> trademark policy on that might be useful, more so than for the logo.
>

I guess I can't comment since we're not supposed to be armchair lawyering,
though I think I agreed with the poster upthread who said this whole topic is
just armchair lawyering.

> - It's easy to find the registration for "PostgreSQL" in the Canadian
> trademark database, but searching for the logo is a bit harder. Link
> please.

+1

> - In general, it would be better to give a complete account of who holds
> what trademark and how alongside the rules that are supposed to govern
> the use.
>
> - Calling the logo "Slonik" is confusing, as "Slonik" is clearly (also)
> associated with the Slony project, which incidentally uses a different
> logo. (Wasn't the old crystal elephant Slonik anyway?)
>

Yes, but the mascot has always been referred to as Slonik, before Slony
started doing it. (IIRC Vadeem was the one who named it)

OTOH, pretty sure that any trademark hel by Marc would also be on the old
crystal elephant logo anyway; as mentioned it would be great to see a link to
any actual trademark registry there is.

> - If we're getting legalistic on the logo use, we also need a copyright
> license for it (which would probably look very similar to the trademark
> policy).

No argument, but you also need to factor in that it is BSD licensed.

--
Robert Treat
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Consulting: http://www.omniti.com