On Wednesday, 5 June 2019 21:33:08 CEST Axel Braun wrote:
Am Mittwoch, 5. Juni 2019, 18:24:07 CEST schrieb Robert Schweikert:
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There is only a crux, conflict, or confusion if you conflate the topic of this thread with all the other aspects of the Foundation discussion we're going to need to discuss eventually.
But I'd say it would be hell of a lot better for everyone if we actually kept this thread on topic and just addressed the Name/Logo topic here and now.
And how can one form an opinion about that if one does not know if collectively we think that control of the mark is important or not?
We need to answer the underlying question....
...and probably we need to ask 'Why and under what circumstances should one change a brand name?'
I talked to a marketing and communications expert this evening. He is CEO of a communications agency in Germany.
There are two reasons why you should change a brand:
1) the brand is damaged, e.g a company that went bankrupt and tries a restart (Example: Schlecker, a retail chain in Germany, would have been such an example). Or you are associated with bad practice or problematic goods (Monsanto maybe?) In this case it makes clearly sense to change the brand to get a 'clean reputation' before going back into the market.
Is the brand perception of openSUSE damaged? Clearly not. SUSE is the oldest Linux distro alive, and has a very good reputation esp. among professional users. Newbies may tend to Ub***u, but we can work on this. In general, openSUSE perception is positive as well.
2) for legal reasons of whatever kind. Here we are back in the discussion about the trademark 'openSUSE'. And this is something that needs to be solved and discussed with SUSE. Ideally SUSE grants openSUSE (Foundation, I assume) the unlimited and non-revocable right to use the brand 'openSUSE' under the terms and conditions of the foundation charter. In this ideal case there is no legal issue.
Assuming that SUSE still wants to keep the relationship I see a good chance that this right is given to the foundation. Board has to discuss terms and conditions with SUSE legal counselor, and report this back to the community. Only in case there is a real issue we should consider a name change.
Under no circumstance - never ever - we should change the brand without a need (in german: in vorauseilendem Gehorsam), as this has no benefit to the brand.
We would need to put some effort in a new CI/CD, and a massive investment in communication, under the risk that we end up as 'just another Linux distro'.
So, lets clarify terms and conditions for trademark usage, and then see if there is a need to change names.
For the moment I would not continue this discussion, for the above reasons.
Cheers Axel
Good morning, Axel! Fair point you are mentioning. But as far as I understood Richard Brown correctly, and unlimited and irrevocable right is not what we can get, as it will most likely be a right as we already have, probably even with more limitations. In case I misunderstood Richard Brown, I am quite sure it will end all discussion instantaneously. As you point out correctly, if you are able to get full, unlimited and irrevocable rights for the use of SUSE in openSUSE as a foundation name, we should stay with a well established name and brand. But, if I am right and understood Richard Brown correctly, well, then it's like I said: rather change at least the name for the community and foundation. At least we are still free to use openSUSE as a brand for all the foundation's and community's projects. Maybe on a way to a transition to rebrand them according to the foundation's and community's name and brand, but that could be kept open for a decision on the road. Kind regards Pierre -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org