Jochen123 wrote > On Sat, Feb 02, 2013 at 04:45:56PM +0100, Simon Poole wrote: >> I'm reaching out to our counsel to see if we can release the C&D, but >> IMHO it is unlikely. Further I know that the statement has caused some > > Come on. That's rediculous. What's this? A secret government order? What > do you > fear will happen if you publish it?
If I am not mistaken, non of the OSMF board are lawyers. So it is not really in their realm of expertise to know what will happen legally. However, it is clear that one wrong move in these legal battles has the potential for serious consequences either for the individual or OSM(F) as a whole. So it makes absolute sense that the OSMF board first consults with legal counsel to be on the safe side! After all, once something is published on the internet you can't take it back if it turns out to be a mistake. That said, I very much hope that the letter can be published so that more people can judge its consequences and for OSM to possibly get some "sympathy PR" out of it, as it does seem ridiculous that they would try and forbid the use of the term geocoding (btw, is it just one spelling that is trademarked and e.g. geo-coding or geo coding ist fine?). But then if you look at the fact that e.g. Apple has seemingly managed to design-patent a device with round edges or that Deutsche Telekom tried to defend a trademark on the generic colour magenta (which apparently cost a 4 man start-up over 60.000 EUR in legal fees to defend against and if they had lost would have cost them in the range of a million EURs), it is clear that this area of law is illogical, insane and an absolute mine field! Kai -- View this message in context: http://gis.19327.n5.nabble.com/Recent-edits-in-the-wiki-Trademark-issue-tp5747591p5747775.html Sent from the General Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
