[OSM-talk] HOT using the OpenStreetMap-Foundation trademark

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

Hi all,

it has been a while that HOT and the OpenStreetMap-Foundation are discussing about an agreement which would allow HOT (in case you do not know, it is a completely different organization, unrelated to the OSMF), to use the OpenStreetMap-Foundation registered marks.

There is some documentation in the minutes, unfortunately it often does not cover what was actually discussed, just that something was discussed, that the discussion was not minuted on request, that it was discussed in the non-public part, and similar.

If you want to dig yourself into this issue, the board and LWG minutes provide some referrers, e.g. https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2022-03#HOT_draft_trademark_agreement

here is some recent summary content, in the collaborative notes section:

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/Board/Minutes/2022-02-S2S/Humanitarian_OpenStreetMap_Team

first mention of the issue in the minutes I found is an email 2 years ago: 
2020-04-17 AOB - Email from HOT about agreement on trademark use


What really puzzles me, they are talking about this for 2 years, but in all this time no effort for clarification on behalf of HOT was made public, there is no hint at all on the HOT website that HOT does not own the OpenStreetMap mark and that HOT is not affiliated with the OpenStreetMap-Foundation, on the contrary, for an uninformed visitor it rather looks as if HOT was indeed a part of the OpenStreetMap organization.

https://www.hotosm.org/

in the title bar, there is no hint about the trademark status. There is no disclaimer on any page as suggested by the OpenStreetMap-Foundation guidelines on trademark:

2.2. Required notices
Please include this notice, or something similar, when you use a mark outside of the OSM projects:

[Wordmark / name of logo] is a trademark of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, and is used with their permission. [We / this product / this project] are not endorsed by or affiliated with the OpenStreetMap Foundation.



I understand that unless there is an agreement, it may not be possible to state that the mark is used with OpenStreetMap-Foundation permission, but it should be prominently pointed out, for the avoidance of doubt, that HOT is not endorsed by or affiliated with the OpenStreetMap-Foundation.

Omitting such a statement while having OpenStreetMap in the company name clearly will lead to confusion (even with such a statement there is room for confusion, one might overlook it for example). This misleading impression is reinforced by the footer, which reads:
“ Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and global community. Learn more about OpenStreetMap.“

to me this suggests that HOT is some kind of OpenStreetMap organization.

What do you think?

It should also be mentioned that HOT is not the only organization which deals with humanitarian mapping in the context of OpenStreetMap.

Cheers Martin 

sent from a phone
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