ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 3:47 PM, Ricardo Salveti de Araujo
<ricardo.salveti@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 03/18/2013 07:31 PM, Benjamin Kerensa wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Alex Chiang <achiang@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> * Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa@xxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>>
>>>> We currently are using Trademark brands of Twitter, YouTube and
>>>> Facebook (and others on Ubuntu.com mobile area) all outside of the
>>>> scope of each individual services Trademark policy...
>>>
>>>
>>> Can you point out where you believe the violation is occurring? I
>>> looked around http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone for about 10
>>> minutes and didn't see anything standing out.
>>
>>
>> Did you not notice the Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Skype, SoundCloud,
>> Youtube and Spotify logos (Trademarked Brands) being used? If you read
>> the policies of these brands they have very clearly outlined that use
>> on a website or in apps to give a sense of endorsement by those brands
>> or in some cases at all is not allowed.
>>
>> Its like slapping to Ubuntu logo on Microsoft.com... Its just not
>> allowed by the trademark policy because Ubuntu/Canonical does not give
>> permission to Microsoft to do such because we do not endorse that
>> company.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Unless you're talking about something else?
>>>
>>> Rest of my comments follow on the assumption you're talking about
>>> the web site, and not something else. If it is something else,
>>> then apologies in advance for not understanding your meaning.
>>
>>
>> But this also applies to the phone apps which ship again Trademarked
>> logos/brand names:
>>
>> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-twitter-dev/ubuntu-twitter-app/trunk/view/head:/twitter64.png
>>
>> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-facebook-dev/ubuntu-facebook-app/trunk/view/head:/facebook64.png
>>
>> We cannot use logos or brand names in violation of the trademark
>> policies of the respective brands.
>>
>>>
>>>> Don't use Twitter in the name of your website, application or product.
>>>> - Twitter Trademark Policy
>>>>
>>>> https://twitter.com/logo
>>>
>>>
>>> We have a twitter logo here:
>>>          http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone
>>>
>>> But the section you quoted does not apply in this scenario, since
>>> it is talking about "naming applications, products, or domains";
>>> simply using the icon is completely fine.
>>
>>
>> Actually not correct... I know for example that Twitter in the case of
>> FxOS licensed their trademark because Twitter does not want third
>> platforms making use of their logo or brand in applications.
>>
>> You cannot just create a application on a third-party platform and
>> call it "Twitter" and expect that to be accepted use... Its
>> common-sense and basic trademark etiquette.
>
>
> One thing is that we're not creating an application here, it's just a
> browser opening a link.
>
> So, I'd follow Alex's line here, that using just the logo without modifying
> the app/user experience is actually fine.
>
> But for an official statement we'd need a lawyer here.
>
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Ricardo Salveti de Araujo

I forwarded the mailing list link to Canonical's General Counsel for feedback.