On 7/8/24 2:42 PM, Natasha Ament-Teusink wrote:
Hi,
On 07-07-2024 21:47, Shawn W Dunn wrote:
Pursuant to Richard and Robert's talk at oSC 2024:
https://media.ccc.de/v/4411-we-re-all-grown-up-opensuse-is-not-suse
This is a topic that needs to be discussed as a community, especially as it's currently a request from SUSE.
Basically it boils down to SUSE being concerned the strength of their trademark is watered down by us using the SUSE name in our distribution.
Does this change have any legal and/or financial consequences? A dull/boring question probably but a necessary one (probably a leftover from my days in law school).
If its done right no, there are basically two sensible ways this could be done, In one way SUSE would own the new trademark as they own the current one and would be responsible for defending it legally. In the other case Ether SUSE would acquire the trademark and transfer it to a foundation (Or fund the foundation to acquire it) At the same time a legal contract would be drawn up between SUSE and the foundation stating that SUSE would provide legal support as required in cases where the trademark needs to be defended. One of the fun things about trademark law is that if trademarks aren't actively defended then they can be lost. Any other option could lead to a point where there is the potential that a foundation wouldn't have the funds to protect the new trademark and it could be lost. I am guessing this is a risk that SUSE Legal wouldn't be willing to take its also one that I don't personally think the community should take at this point. As always here is the I am not a lawyer disclaimer but this is a topic where I have received legal opinions before when looking into the previous foundation proposals. Besides those legal questions rebranding is expensive so it is one of my aims as a board member to try and work with SUSE to secure a good budget / sponsorship for the rebranding to ensure its as successful as possible. -- Simon Lees (Simotek) http://simotek.net Emergency Update Team keybase.io/simotek SUSE Linux Adelaide Australia, UTC+10:30 GPG Fingerprint: 5B87 DB9D 88DC F606 E489 CEC5 0922 C246 02F0 014B