Thomas Cameron wrote:
I can certainly understand your point of view, but seriously - what on Earth would Red Hat gain by jacking with the Cornell/UVA project? There is no competition, they are in different areas of technology.
As I understand it, the holder of a trademark has to defend unauthorised use of the trademark, or lose it.
If I use the trademark "Red Hat," say to represent my product, outside Red Hat and the law's guidelines, and Red Hat does not defend its trademark, then it loses its rights to the trademark.
As I understand US law, I can use "Red Hat" in some ways to compare my product with Red Hat's, but I must acknowledge Red Hat's trademark.
But then IANAL and I'm certainly not an American lawyer.
Presumably Red Hat can settle the matter with a written undertaking grant the others a licence to use the name in certain ways, and for the others to not use it in ways that conflict with Red Hat's needs. I suspect that promising not to sue is not enough lest RH loses the trademark.
Possibly, both parties could skirt round the issue by trademarking critical phrases such as "Fedora Core," "Fedora Extras," "Fedora Digital Library."
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Cheers John
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