j...@jfeldredge.com writes: > 2011/5/17 Russ Nelson <nel...@crynwr.com>: > > If you don't restrict use, you don't have a trademark > > -1, you have a trademark when it is registered. This has nothing to do > with whether you enforce restricted use or not. You can at any time > restrict the use.
The key under US law is that you don't own the name by itself -- you own the reputation of the goods and services, and a trademark is a tool to protect that. If you allow people to use the trademark on goods and services whose quality you *don't* control, you don't have a trademark -- you just have a pretty picture. The main difference between the US and Europe trademark law is that in Europe, it is the registration of a trademark that matters, not use. In the US, use creates ownership; registration just creates the presumption of ownership; not actual ownership. I hope this sheds light and not heat. > > But all is not lost. It's still licensed CC-By-SA, so anybody who uses > > it has to acknowledge OpenStreetMap. > > no, he has to acknowledge the creator, which is Ken Vermette, Then, just as Steve assigned the trademark to the OSMF, so can Ken assign copyright in the logo to OSMF. -- --my blog is at http://blog.russnelson.com Crynwr supports open source software 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815 Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | Sheepdog _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
