[OSM-talk] Draft Trademark Policy

[Christoph Hormann]

On Friday 04 August 2017, Simon Poole wrote:
>
> Yes, but that isn't a conflict. IMHO GeoFabrik simply needs
> permission to use the mark that way (and a further licence for
> "creating and using extremely unwieldy product names that just cause
> trouble" :-)).

Ok, that is clear to me then.

And in a way i agree that for a product name you should avoid use of 
known trademakes of others as a general principle.  However in my eyes 
this is primarily an avoidance maneuver to keep clear of a legal 
minefield and not something warranted by real life reasons like clarity 
and understandability of names.  And the boundary between a product 
name and the title of a product description is ultimately blurry.

Furthermore IMO it is not really in the interest of OpenStreetMap to 
discourage use of the name in names of products that are based on 
OpenStreetMap data.  Setting aside the question of descriptive product 
names for the moment - if Frederik wanted to name an OSM based data 
product "Geofabrik's home made OpenStreetMap data stew" requiring him 
to ask for permission to do so is kind of silly.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/