[IAEP] [SLOBS] [SLOBs] Scenarios for licensing our trademarks

[Chris Ball]

Hi Sean,

   > http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Trademark_case_studies

Thanks for doing this.

   > "approval can't be automatic for several reasons I have outlined
   > previously, but in particular because of periodicity, renewal,
   > and revocation if conditions not respected (e.g. the stick turns
   > out to have proprietary software on it instead of the official SL
   > build). Another reason is support - we need to avoid scenario of
   > sales which imply SL community support without our even knowing
   > about it."

As a heads-up, at the moment I disagree with the idea that trademark
approval can't be automatic, even within the constraints you've given.
For example, "you can use the mark without permission as long as your
product does not contain proprietary software" is a fine way to
control that particular condition, if we wanted to, and similarly "if
you are including extra software, you should prominently advertise
that Sugar Labs does not provide support for your product, and give
your own contact details for support instead" works for support.

We could make it clear that adherence to these conditions is going to
be strictly necessary, that the conditions might change in the future,
and that we'll be communicative about what we perceive to be an
infraction before we attempt to revoke the use of the automatic
license due to non-compliance with the terms.

Fedora and Ubuntu feel like the closest matches to our use case, and
both have strong no-permission uses of trademarks available, which I'm
sure helps to grow their ecosystems; I think people often avoid asking
for permission, even in cases where it's clear that it will probably
be given.

(How do others feel about this?)

Thanks,

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child