Media Coverage
Source: Managing Intellectual Property
Media Coverage
Press Contacts: Erik Cummins, Matt Hyams, Olivia Thomas
07.20.20
The intersection of trademarks and open source code became a topic of discussion after the launch of Open Usage Commons, an organization dedicated to helping firms assert and manage their project identity through conformance testing and trademark management programs.
Lawyers tell Managing IP that it is a good idea for the open source community to discuss the issue given the unknown effects the project could have on trademarks in the open source space.
Edward Cavazos, an Austin-based Intellectual Property partner at Pillsbury, says it can be difficult for organizations or projects with fewer resources to register and enforce trademarks.
“If it’s not handled by a for-profit entity that has the resources to go out and protect it and enforce it, will it be a strong trademark? Will it lose its trademark protection? How is the community going to go out and register it?”
Cavazos said there are parallels between how open source players and social media companies allow third parties to use their marks. A social media company might allow a brand to put its logo on advertising so the brand can indicate it has a presence on that platform.
But the social media platform will still have guidelines on how brands can and cannot use the mark. “Similar types of guidelines could be effective for the open source community so that projects maintain integrity but still allow some reference to the mark by the community in a controlled way,” Cavazos said.
Cavazos added that even though companies want to take user intentions into account, they still have to police their marks. He refers to the concept of a naked license where brands license their marks but fail to maintain control over how the marks are used, and thus the brand loses its distinction and trademark protection.