Bug 868303 – European name and logo usage guidelines are only in German

• Product: Gentoo Foundation
• Status: CONFIRMED ---

[Description Sam James 2022-09-03 18:27:20 UTC]

https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/name-logo-guidelines.html says under the FAQ:
"""
What about non-USA trademarks?

The Lizenzierung der Marke “Gentoo” as published by the Förderverein Gentoo e.V. (who also owns the trademarks in Europe) defines the usage rights of the name and logo inside Europe
"""

It links to https://gentoo-ev.org/downloads/Nutzungsbestimmungen.pdf. gentoo-evn.org is only available in the German language, and so is that PDF.

This isn't very accessible to other residents of Europe who want to know if their usage of the Gentoo name & logo is acceptable.

[Comment 1 Ulrich Müller 2022-09-03 21:31:12 UTC]

There were some plans to bring the licensing conditions of the e.V. more in line with the Foundation guidelines at https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/name-logo-guidelines.html. Unfortunately, these don't have any provisions for choice of law and limitation of liability, so it wouldn't be reasonable to use them in the EU directly (or so we've been told by a lawyer).

Because of this, we currently won't make any effort to translate the existing Nutzungsbestimmungen. Presumably it would have to be done by a lawyer in order to get the legalese right. (Also, what would be the target languages for translation? French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch?)

[Comment 2 Sam James 2022-09-03 21:34:51 UTC]

(In reply to Ulrich Müller from comment #1)
> Because of this, we currently won't make any effort to translate the
> existing Nutzungsbestimmungen. Presumably it would have to be done by a
> lawyer in order to get the legalese right. (Also, what would be the target
> languages for translation? French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch?)

English, as the main language in Gentoo, would be a good start, and in my opinion, it'd be the only required language for that reason, but adding those others might be nice.

[Comment 3 Ulrich Müller 2022-09-03 22:36:44 UTC]

(In reply to Sam James from comment #2)
> (In reply to Ulrich Müller from comment #1)
> > Because of this, we currently won't make any effort to translate the
> > existing Nutzungsbestimmungen. Presumably it would have to be done by a
> > lawyer in order to get the legalese right. (Also, what would be the target
> > languages for translation? French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch?)
> 
> English, as the main language in Gentoo, would be a good start, and in my
> opinion, it'd be the only required language for that reason, but adding
> those others might be nice.

Sure, it's self-evident that we would have an English translation. OTOH this is about the trademark in the EU, and in this context (after Brexit) there are about a dozen other languages with more native speakers. That's why I was wondering about additional target languages.

But see above. We need a lawyer in any case, and that effort won't go into translation of guidelines that are to be replaced.

[Comment 4 Sam James 2022-09-03 22:42:58 UTC]

(In reply to Ulrich Müller from comment #3)
> Sure, it's self-evident that we would have an English translation. OTOH this
> is about the trademark in the EU, and in this context (after Brexit) there
> are about a dozen other languages with more native speakers. That's why I
> was wondering about additional target languages.
> 

I thought it was obvious it should be in English in the first place and it isn't ;)

> But see above. We need a lawyer in any case, and that effort won't go into
> translation of guidelines that are to be replaced.

Okay. Is the eV going to pursue that then...?

[Comment 5 Ulrich Müller 2022-09-04 02:09:42 UTC]

(In reply to Sam James from comment #4)
> Okay. Is the eV going to pursue that then...?

That's the intention. However, I cannot make any promises at this point.