[CLUE-Tech] Trademark

[Evan Widger]

that's funny. ironic. and a very interesting comment.

about 5 years ago i thought redhat was /the/ producer of linux. it was the
only distro i had heard of (i hadn't even installed it, just heard that it
was some operating system like unix and i saw the redhat boxes at staples)
and the first book i bough was the red hat linux bible with a CD in the back
of redhat 6.1

of course by that time i'd learned of the other distros, but i still think
that for the uninitiated, redhat is probably one of the strongest trademarks
for a linux product.

just my $.02

Evan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier" <jzb at dissociatedpress.net>
To: <clue-tech at clue.denver.co.us>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: [CLUE-Tech] Trademark



> Sure, it's legal to make copies. You don't have to remove every instance
> of the name "Red Hat" -- you simply haven't been granted permission to
> use the name for advertising purposes. What Red Hat wants to avoid is
> the idea that a product is "official" when it has been purchased from a
> third party, as well as dilution of their trademark.
>
> See, if a vendor like CheapBytes can sell "CheapBytes Red Hat Linux"
> then, after some time, the term "Red Hat" would likely be considered
> generic -- and Red Hat would lose the ability to enforce their
> trademark.
>
> That's particularly bad for Red Hat or any open source company because
> their name is really one of their most valuable assets. They don't "own"
> the code they sell and support, so the name-brand is pretty important to
> distinguish them from other vendors...
>
> Zonker
> -- 
> Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
> jzb at dissociatedpress.net
> Aim: zonkerjoe
> http://www.dissociatedpress.net



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