Bid farewell to some of Yosemite National Park’s most iconic names.In an extraordinary move, the National Park Service announced Thursday that it was changing the names of The Ahwahnee hotel, Curry Village and other beloved park sites. The move, officials say, was forced on them by an intellectual property dispute with the park’s departing concessions company.
Source: Amid court battle, Yosemite park plans to change some iconic names | The Sacramento Bee
But who owns the name “ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE”? It is a viral movement. Its origin is disputed, and likely was used for other charitable causes first.
Yet by filing with the USPTO, the ALS Association now alleges that it owns rights to the phrase “Ice Bucket Challenge” in connection with charitable fundraising.
ALS Association captured a viral wave this summer. And it raised lots of money and attention for the ALS disease and the struggle to find a cure and to assist those diagnosed with it. An effort to register the ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE strikes me as a bit akin to those who sought register BOSTON STRONG after the marathon bombings in 2013
To keep the balance between the integrity of our trademarks and the ability to to use and promote Ubuntu, we’ve tried to define a reasonable Intellectual Property Policy. You can read the full policy at http://www.canonical.com/intellectual-property-policy. As you can see from our policy, to use the Ubuntu trademarks and and Ubuntu word in a domain name would require approval from Canonical.
via Canonical shouldn’t abuse trademark law to silence critics of its privacy decisions | micah.f.lee.
Update: From Canonical Blog.
In the case of fixubuntu.com, we were concerned that the use of the trademark implied a connection with and endorsement from the Ubuntu project which didn’t exist. The site owner has already agreed to remove the Ubuntu logo and clarified that there is no connection; from our perspective the situation has been resolved, and we have no issue with the site or the criticism it includes. In fact, far from an trying to silence critics, our trademark policy actually calls out parody and criticism and other uses as being allowed when the marks are used appropriately. (Please make the parodies funny – we need a good laugh as much as anyone!)
From Mark Shuttleworth:
This was a bit silly on our part, sorry. Our trademark guidelines specifically allow satire and critique (‘sucks sites’) and we should at most have asked him to state that his use of the logo was subject to those guidelines.
It appears that our friend at San Mateo doesn’t like us comparing their latest product to the Sony AS15. Earlier today we have received a DMCA take down notice from GoPro for mentioning their trademarks “GoPro” and “Hero” without their authorisation. They say “you learn something new everyday”, and this is clearly an eye-opener for us here. It appears that we’ll need their authorisation to review their products.
via GoPro doesn’t like their Hero 3 compared to Sony’s AS15?.
But the petition was denied after authorities found that iFone – a provider of software for call centers – had registered its trade name in Mexico in 2003, four years before Apple did.
The Mexican firm later filed a countersuit for damages and to block Apple from selling its flagship smartphone product in Mexico.
The gear logo is backed by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which was formally established earlier this year to promote hardware innovation and unite the fragmented community of hackers and do-it-yourselfers. The gear mark is now being increasingly used on boards and circuits to indicate that the hardware is open-source and designs can be openly shared and modified.
via Open-source movements butt heads over logo.
OSI has now informed OSHWA, which is acting on behalf of the open-source hardware community, that the logo infringes on its trademark.