Feature #9047

Tails trademark

Added by sajolida 2015-03-11 14:32:21 . Updated 2018-08-18 12:21:14 .

Status:
Confirmed
Priority:
Low
Assignee:
Category:
Target version:
Start date:
2015-03-11
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Research
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

Many of the projects that we are close to have trademarks for their name:

Do we want to go this way as well?

Subtasks

History

#1 Updated by sajolida 2015-03-12 10:58:21

If I understood correctly:

We could declare ourselves an unregistered trademark for Tails by appending the trademark symbol (™) on some occurrences of Tails on our website.

Registered trademarks like Tor, Debian, and GNOME are another kind of beast and require bureaucracy work.

#2 Updated by BitingBird 2015-03-12 20:51:11

I think the unregistered trademark is a good compromise. It could be added in the About page, and in the /contribute/how/promote/ (section “Advertising material”).

#3 Updated by 01 2015-03-22 10:01:37

Added trust from possible users of Tails for sure.

Legal actions may be quite complicated.

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2015-04-07 19:41:09

  • Assignee set to sajolida
  • QA Check set to Info Needed

At the monthly meeting, we felt that we lacked information to decide anything. None of us felt like reading the wikipedia page or diving into a ML thread. So, could you please summarize what would be the pros and cons of an unregistered trademark (compared to the current situation)?

#6 Updated by sajolida 2016-03-21 15:09:47

  • QA Check deleted (Info Needed)

#7 Updated by Anonymous 2018-01-19 17:30:08

  • Priority changed from Normal to Low

Nothing happened here for quite some time -> lowering priority.

#8 Updated by sajolida 2018-04-27 09:41:52

  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)
  • Type of work changed from Discuss to Research

Maybe the next step would be to find an external expert that could help us understand trademark better: what would it take and what would we gain from either an unregistered or a register trademark. Acknowledging that we don’t have ourselves the knowledge or energy to learn about these issues.

I don’t know any experts in the field. Maybe we should go ask at Debian, Tor, FSF, etc.

I think that anybody in the project can do that so I’m removing this ticket from my plate.

#9 Updated by intrigeri 2018-04-30 11:42:09

> Maybe the next step would be to find an external expert that could help us understand trademark better: what would it take and what would we gain from either an unregistered or a register trademark.

Agreed.

> I don’t know any experts in the field. Maybe we should go ask at Debian, Tor, FSF, etc.

I would ask the Software Freedom Conservancy.

#10 Updated by segfault 2018-08-14 10:42:02

sajolida wrote:
> * This Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unregistered_trademark
>
> We could declare ourselves an unregistered trademark for Tails by appending the trademark symbol (™) on some occurrences of Tails on our website.

Citing from the Wikipedia article:

“Although not required by law to receive trademark protection, an unregistered trademark owner can append the mark with the letters ”TM" (visualized by the trademark symbol ™)"

So according to this, we don’t even have to append the trademark symbol to receive trademark protection.

#11 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-18 12:20:33

The Wikipedia article mostly refers to US legal system though and it’s not clear to me if this works worldwide or not. Marking your name with TM already gives you more protection than not marking it at all, according to the German wikipedia entry.

#12 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-18 12:21:14

I’m in favor of asking an expert about this.