Trademark Guidance. Russian Fedora initiative.

[Paul W. Frields]

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 01:55:52AM +0400, Alexey.Vasyukov at vdel.com wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am sorry a lot for such a long delay with the answers - I had very limited
> internet access due to vacation. Please, let me answer Paul and Matt with this
> one letter as long as questions are interconnected.
> 
> > > As long as it is understood you are an informal group, there is no
> > > need for a trademark license for your group name.  I could form a
> > > group in my hometown called "Virginia is for Fedora Lovers" and as
> > > long as I didn't make that group a legal entity, there would be no
> > > need for such a license.  So I think this issue you can consider
> > > solved. :-)
> 
> Ok. Thank you a lot for clear explanation.
> 
> > > Where and how is the
> > > "russianfedora.ru" site currently being actively promoted?
> 
> This name is cited in number of off-line official magazines issued this spring
> after the meeting of Red Hat with Russian Ministry. (If you need a proof - I
> can try to find them and send you scans.) As long as some of these magazines
> are issued only once or twice a year (for example, Ministry Newsletter), we
> would like to keep this domain for at least two "releases" of these magazines.
> 
> > With regard to ru.fedoracommunity.org vs russianfedora.ru.  If the
> > longer-term goal is to use ru.fedoracommunity.org as the primary name,
> > but you have already given the russianfedora.ru name to various
> > interested parties, can I suggest using HTTP rewrites?
> 
> It is really a good idea. We can do it. It will really help with smooth
> transition.
> 
> > > I think the first logo might need a small bit of tweaking to satisfy
> > > the following usage guideline:
> > > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Logo/UsageGuidelines#Logo_Clear_Space
> 
> Ok. I see. We will adapt the logo.
> 
> > > There are two ways to go:
> > >
> > > 1.  If the Russian Fedora logo includes the official Fedora logo, as
> > > you requested above, you will still need a trademark license agreement
> > > specifically for production of non-software goods.
> > >
> > > 2.  If you decide to instead brand only with your website, such as
> > > "russianfedora.ru," this may not be necessary.
> 
> It is clear. We will submit requests for all the goods that will include
> official Fedora logo.

After I talk with Red Hat Legal tomorrow, I should have a clear idea
of what paperwork you need in addition to the standard domain license.
Let's plan to talk further when you return.

> > > You do not need a special license for shipping Fedora Remixes, but you
> > > should be aware of several things:
> [snip]
> 
> It is clear as well. Of course it will be branded "Russian Fedora Remix" and
> use Fedora Remix logo. And we will do our best to double-check this policy with
> independent Russian distributors who sell hard-copies of Linux distros (like
> linuxcenter.ru and others).
> 
> 
> So, I guess, that is it. From my point of view everything looks solved. :-)
> 
> As I see, the next practical steps are:
> - I will contact the actual owner of the russianfedora.ru domain and ask him to
> execute the agreement asap.
> - We will jointly take care of "mod_rewriting" russianfedora.ru to
> ru.fedoracommunity.org. (Please, let us do it in a week or two, after I will be
> completely back from the vacation.)

All of this sounds good.  When you return we'll talk more to get the
paperwork to the domain owner, and the domain rewriting issues handled
through the Infrastructure team.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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