[legal] Questions about OpenID Europe Trademark Policy

[Mike Jones]

Agreed.  What trademark work I've been involved with in the past has taught me that unless there's clear criteria for what is and isn't conforming usage for the mark, the mark is meaningless.

Criteria such as "must be used in contexts that promote OpenID and/or indicate that a site is using approved or implementer's draft OpenID specifications" make sense to me.  My wording is terrible, but you get the point and the wording can be fixed. :-)

                                Cheers,
                                -- Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: legal-bounces at openid.net [mailto:legal-bounces at openid.net] On Behalf Of Raj Mata
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 1:06 PM
To: Martin Atkins; legal at openid.net
Subject: Re: [legal] Questions about OpenID Europe Trademark Policy

+1!!

Totally agree, the objective should be to provide users a clear and
consistent expectation when they see an OpenID trademark on the web, so
that we can enhance the value and adoption of OpenID in the marketplace!

Cheers,

Raj



-----Original Message-----
From: legal-bounces at openid.net [mailto:legal-bounces at openid.net] On
Behalf Of Martin Atkins
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 4:33 AM
To: legal at openid.net
Subject: Re: [legal] Questions about OpenID Europe Trademark Policy

Hans Granqvist wrote:
>> 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"...
>
> But... Don't you *want* that to happen?
>
> "Nobody should own this. Nobody's planning on making any money from
this."
> and all that, you know.
>

Presumably the concern is that other non-OpenID but identity-related
things could become known as "OpenID" as well. Other examples include
people calling Atom "RSS", and calling Pepsi "Coke".

The goal is to protect the trademark to avoid confusion in the
marketplace, not as a source of income.

(At least, that *should* be the goal! I don't speak for OpenID Europe.)


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