[legal] Questions about OpenID Europe Trademark Policy

[Snorri]

Dear Caesten,

 

Thank for your email,

 

The goal of this policy is not to be binding, it has just been planned to avoid abuses by some in the future… 

= Understand projects that does not work in the philosophy of the OpenID Community

 

There has been a lot of conversation about the use of the TM symbol, all lawyers explain that it is important to write it… to avoid in the future OpenID become a word like “kleenex”, “email”…

 

There are only one OpenID logo, it’s the same for everybody, probably soon the new logo with a space between the “I” and the ‘arrow”…

 

Of course be free to use as you want… 

 

Cheers

 

-Snorri

 

De : legal-bounces at openid.net [mailto:legal-bounces at openid.net] De la part de Carsten Pötter
Envoyé : samedi 8 mars 2008 17:34
À : legal at openid.net
Objet : [legal] Questions about OpenID Europe Trademark Policy

 

I have just learned that there is a draft for an OpenID Europe Trademark and Logo Policy (http://www.openideurope.eu/policies/openid-trademark-policy/). And quite frankly, I am confused. It's possible that I have misunderstood certain aspects, so here are a few points and questions:

1) If I use the OpenID logo on blog posts I have to use the logo with the TM symbol.
2) The logo has to be clickable, linking back to openideurope.eu.
3) In order to use the SpreadOpenID.org domain we need written permission by OpenID Europe.
4) The logo on SpreadOpenID.org has to change.

First, it is quite confusing that there is no note that the trademark and logo policy is still a draft. Anyway, while I know that openideurope.eu exists, I haven't paid much attention to it yet. Call it ignorance or whatever, but I have always browsed openid.net when looking for information on OpenID. I guess that applies to most people in Europe.

The TM logo: That logo is hardly known in the OpenID community which might be due to the low profile of openideurope.eu. So why introduce a new logo to use when it is not known? If OpenID Europe hired a law firm it could send cease and desist letters by the hundreds.

Clickable logo: I'm in Germany so I am expected to link back to openideurope.eu when using the logo. That would simply confuse readers. According to my log files my readers are from all over the world, mostly from the US actually. Why should they be directed to openideurope.eu instead of openid.net? I am sure that won't help spreading the word about OpenID.
Do I have to write OpenID™ in blog posts and linking to openideurope.eu instead of just OpenID and linking to openid.net? That was just consistent.

Admittedly it's been a rather bold move by us to use the spreadopenid.org domain. Can we get a permission once the policy is in action? Do we have to remove the logo? Well, we want to change the theme anyway. Maybe the logo will be dropped then, too.

Thanks for your attention
Carsten

-- 
http://www.notsorelevant.com
http://spreadopenid.org

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