[OSM-talk] Draft Trademark Policy

[Jochen Topf]

On Fri, Aug 04, 2017 at 07:07:47PM +0200, Simon Poole wrote:
> Sorry but that is hyperbole, after the 13 years of OSM the number of
> domains affected amounts to something between 30 and 40., not 100s. The
> policy is rather clear on what is allowed and what not, and if there are
> further questions we can address that in the FAQs.

My number was not referring to domains alone, but also to other
projects, software etc. See below.

And, no, the policy is not clear at all. Maybe to you with your
background but not to me and not to many others I would think. The
discussion here shows that it isn't. There are obvious further questions
that I am asking in this discussion and you are not answering them but
referring me to a FAQ that will be written in the future, maybe after
the policy has been decided on? Why are we having this discussion here
at all? Can somebody please at least try to answer my questions?

> Why would we be interested in the names of github repos/projects? We are
> mainly interested in use of our marks in commerce and similar/related
> activities and registrations that convey exclusive rights (domain and
> company names etc).,

Ah. You are "mainly interested in". Maybe you should put that in the
policy then... And write down what the difference is between "commerce
and similar/related activities" and things that are purely hobby, which
I suppose is okay? We have been through this discussion a thousand times
in relation to copyright and the non-commercial clause in some CC
licenses and why it is bad because we can't differentiate between
commercial and hobby use really. Why is this different here? Can we
differentiate? The policy as it stands now certainly doesn't seem to
make a distinction there.

Back to the question of software and github repo names: The policy
doesn't even mention "software" or "apps" as a category. So I look for
the best fitting case which seems to me 4.3 "Publications" for which I
would need a license. Is this a wrong interpretation? Do I understand
you correctly that I can have a software with the name OpenStreetMap in
the title in a github repo and it doesn't fall under this policy?

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  https://www.jochentopf.com/  +49-351-31778688