Re: [Linux-aus] Linux Trademark

[Con Zymaris <conz@cyber.com.au>]

On Wed, Aug 03, 2005 at 11:37:17AM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Wednesday 03 August 2005 11:23, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> > I'm belatedly putting together a FAQ here (concise suggestions for
> > new questions welcome):
> 
> From the FAQ:
> > Can I still use the word Linux descriptively?
> 
> > Sure you can. You can say things like "I am a Linux consultant",
> > "Powered by Linux", "We offer LInux support", and so on. All that
> > I'm concerned about is whether you are calling your business, or
> > a product or service that your business provides, by a name that
> > includes "Linux". And I don't even want to stop you from doing
> > that, I just want you to acknowledge that your use of the word in
> > that way is under licence of the trade mark owner.      
> 
> I see some confusion here in "We offer Linux support" -- surely if 
> "Linux support" is offered as a "product", that's a trademark use?

I doubt it. Does every Coke(tm) reseller need to explicitly gain 
trademark usage authorisation to claim that they sell cans of Coke?

Same again for your average Microsoft reseller or support firm?

Now, if you actually created a beverage and called it 'Coke', or produced
a software application called Visual Basic, then that's another story.

Otherwise, all that generally needs to happen is that you add a reference 
acknowledging the trademark.


-- 
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