[haiku-development] Re: Potential trademark issue -- OpenGL

  • From: Alexander von Gluck <kallisti5@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:53:12 -0600

On 04.02.2012 00:35, Humdinger wrote:
Hi!

On Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:21:41 -0500 John Scipione wrote:
I prefer the banner image, without it the preference pane looks a
little
too plain. And there is nothing wrong with a bit of inconsistency to
add
some flair.

I don't agree. Consistency should be (and is) one of our major goals. I
think the user doesn't want to be entertained by the GUI, certainly not
by a preference panel. :)

In that regard: +1 for the new look.


But what about Eddy's quote from SGI's OpenGL license:

On Fri, 3 Feb 2012 12:01:06 +0100 Eddy Derick wrote:
"[...] This license is available free of charge if you are developing
open source implementations on open source platforms. For closed
source
licenses or licenses on proprietary platforms, a charge will be
associated with a trademark license."

While our 3D rose is still a 3D rose, whatever its name, "OpenGL" is
well known in the tech world and we'd benefit from having it on our
feature list.

Yup, I see several OpenGL licenses out there from potential owners:

http://www.sgi.com/products/software/opengl/license.html
http://www.opengl.org/about/logos/
http://www.khronos.org/legal/trademarks
http://www.khronos.org/legal/license#topengl
http://www.sgi.com/products/software/opengl/trademarks.pdf


The problem is they all say something different.  I'm guessing the sgi.com
pdf to be correct (the one eddy quoted), and it would require we notate
OpenGL a registered trademark of SGI. (which we *may* do in the about pane,
not sure)

However, every lawyer I've ever listened to always says you have to
respect the most restrictive trademark if no distinction is made about
the correct/current one by the owning entity. (or you have written
confirmation from the owning entity)

-- Alex

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