Trademark Verse Copyright

[jag3773]

I came across your post on Everything an open source maintainer might need to know about open source licensing and thought it was a very good overview of the issues and common pitfalls. I am not a lawyer but have been involved in open source software and open licensed content maintenance for many years now -- I can attest that the issues you address are common indeed!

Another common misunderstanding that you didn't address specifically is the relationship between trademark and copyright law. This is something that often comes up when an individual or organization wants to fork a project and begin using it independently of the upstream's. The situation may happen in a friendly environment where the downstream group simply has different needs that they need to address that are not suitable for the upstream project to address (e.g. #415). Obviously, the scenario also plays out in hostile contexts where there are upstream and downstream are not on friendly terms.

However, in either case listed above, there are trademark laws that govern the use of the upstream's branding that are often not well understood by the broader open source community. I wonder if you'd be willing to add a section to your post that describes the trademark issues and offers some tips for best practices when it comes to trademarking.

Thanks again for your helpful post!