Re: opie trademark

Hello Everad,
 
The objective of the Handhelds.org, Inc.’s (Handhelds.org) trademark policy is
to encourage widespread use of the Handhelds.org trademarks by the
Handhelds.org community while controlling that use in order to avoid
confusion on the part of Handhelds.org users and the general public, to
maintain the value of the image and reputation of the trademarks and to
protect them from inappropriate or unauthorized use.

Please see the trademark usage policy:
        http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/TrademarkPolicy

I am not a lawyer, but it is my understanding the "opie" trademark has always
been legal. Just like when you copyright a work, it does not have to
registered with the US Copyright Office to be valid.

The trademarks were registered on advise of legal counsel to give more public
notice, make them easier to defend and make them more consistant with the
international community (in many countries only registered marks are valid).

From my point of view, the trademark policy has worked well. It has stopped
one self declared leader from using the opie trademark with out the community
consensus.

I am surprised that nobody has asked what would happen if there was an opie
community consensus on this issue and the above reference policy was
followed. The odds are extremely high that a license would be granted.

Best Regards,

--George

On Wednesday 30 May 2007 07:43 pm, Everard Brown wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> First, excuse me for top-posting.
>
> There has been a suggestion that the 'community' should make
> themselves heard....
>
> My qualifications:
> - User and alpha tester of opie since 0.7.x
> - I sent a one line patch to a makefile once
> - I have provided help to newbies on the mailing lists - when I could ;-)
> - I am an opie advocate - ask anyone I know who has a PDA that could run
> opie
>
> I don't see any problem with using opieII as a project name iff. the
> long term goal is to provide a better/slicker and updated version of
> opie in time for whenever Qt3 starts to be deprecated. When I pick
> between the lines of this discussion, this seems to be the case.
>
> I would object, from a project stability standpoint, to it being
> hosted on a site which has open conflicts with hh.org for the simple
> reason that they (hh.org) have supported, call it 'hosted' if you
> like, both familiar and opie for so many years.
>
> Regarding the trademark discussion, I'm no lawyer but, I think the
> trademark is already owned by the community by virtue of it's origins
> and use in public discussion for such a long time. There should be no
> legal requirement or incentive to make it a registered trademark.
>
> If George can iterate (or re-iterate) his motives for trying to make
> it a 'legal' trademark then that might help clarify things - for me at
> least.
>
> Everard
>
> p.s. feel free to flame me, but I feel like I am part of the community
> hence I am just responding to the RFC. and remember i said "I'm no
> lawyer" :-)
>
> pps. if you don't feel I am part of the opie community, feel free to
> ignore me but, I don't feel that it's just the devs who make the
> community.
>
>
> On Thu, 31 May 2007 08:18:42 +1000, Lorn Potter
>
> <llornkcor_at_optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> > On Thursday 31 May 2007 07:22, Erik Hovland wrote:
> >> On Thu, May 31, 2007 at 06:40:31AM +1000, Lorn Potter wrote:
> >> > On Thursday 31 May 2007 06:17, Erik Hovland wrote:
> >> > > On Thu, May 31, 2007 at 05:17:42AM +1000, Lorn Potter wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > No, he doesn't speak for the community. Neither do you.
> >> >
> >> > Sure I do. I have been around in the opie project longer than most.
> >> > That gives me a right to speak on behalf of the opie community.
> >>
> >> By your requirements then George France has the same right to speak on
> >> behalf of hh.org. He has been around hh.org longer then most. If the
> >> Opie community is part of the hh.org community, he can speak for it.
> >
> > No, he can't. He is not a developer in the Opie project. He
> > (handhelds.org) only hosts the Opie project.
> >
> > Same thing about sf.net, they cannot speak on my behalf for the projects
> > I have there, as they are not a part of the community.
> >
> >> And you were given permission publicly by one person:
> >> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.opie.devel/3885
> >>
> >> While you received an objection from at least two people:
> >> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.opie.devel/3897
> >> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.opie.devel/3898
> >>
> >> Is that permission?
> >
> > If decisions are made on the construct that everyone has to agree to
> > something, then no decisions would ever get made. As the longest standing
> > developer in Opie, I took it upon myself to be the leader and make an
> > executive decision. This decision was made by not only taking into
> > account those feelings expressed publically, but those expressed
> > privately as well, as well as the situation regarding hosting services
> > rendered.
> >
> > I believe I made the right decision for Opie and the next generation of
> > Opie.
> >
> > I do not believe Opie based on qtopia 1 & 2 is obsolete, it is stable,
> > fast and can be made to run on many devices.
> >
> >> > > > But, it is not George France and handhelds.org's property either,
> >> > > > and they also cannot do with as they please - such as trying to
> >> > > > trademark our project name out from underneath us and without
> >> > > > asking or even consulting with the dev teams!
> >> > >
> >> > > You keep saying us. handhelds.org is a community. It is trying to
> >> > > protect the trademark of one of its sub communities. What is the
> >> > > Opie community and do they actually think this is a good idea or
> >> > > not? I for one want a clearer boundary between the Opie community
> >> > > and anyone else. Which means, if Opie is part of the handhelds.org
> >> > > community and there are people in another community who are actively
> >> > > hostile to people in the handhelds.org community, Opie should not be
> >> > > associated with that community. But on top of that we as the Opie
> >> > > community are required to do our own enforcement if we assert the
> >> > > tradename as ours.
> >
> > hmm. ok. so that I am in both communities I gave the other community
> > permission to use the name Opie, only if there was a distinction made..
> > hence "opieII".
> >
> > My whole contention is that no one has the right to try and trademark a
> > name they do not own the rights to.
> >
> >> > > > How can you not see that this is the problem?!
> >> > >
> >> > > I can definitely see the community not wanting its tradenames and
> >> >
> >> > handhelds.org is not run by the community. it is run by George France.
> >> > He is not part of the o[p]ie community.
> >>
> >> George is the CEO and the official admin. But he is not handhelds.org.
> >> There is a community there.
> >
> > By this line of thinking Haavard Nord is a part of the Opie community as
> > well...
> >
> > The handhelds.org community is not necesarily part of the opie community,
> > but the opie community _is_ part of the handhelds.org community.
> >
> >> E
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Open Source User Interface and Apps built on Qt Embedded
> > Opie mailing list
> > Opie_at_handhelds.org
> > https://handhelds.org/mailman/listinfo/opie
>
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Received on Wed May 30 2007 - 21:49:52 EDT