It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on the information on this page. This page has not been approved by any legal authority. The official guidelines for using the Fedora trademarks are located here.
This page is a drafting space for use cases that will help us define new guidelines for the trademarks. Please add use cases you think are missing. If you want to discuss these guidelines, use the "discussion" page (link at top).
Use by Red Hat
Red Hat owns the Fedora trademarks, and protects them on behalf of the entire Fedora community. As the trademark owner, Red Hat strives to use the trademarks under the same guidelines as the rest of the community.
Use by the Fedora Board
The Fedora Board administers trademark guidelines to avoid overly taxing Red Hat's legal resources. The Board approves community regulated use where practical, and serves as the first line of mediation when questions of use arise. The Board refers problems it cannot resolve to Red Hat's legal department through established channels, typically Fedora's legal contact or the FPL.
The Board may use the Fedora trademarks to:
- name subprojects and other groups or initiatives in the Fedora Project
- label distributions or spins of software meeting appropriate guidelines
- refer to the Project and its members, software products, and initiatives in written materials
Use by the Community at Large
Unregulated
Alice wants to indicate her love for Fedora by putting the logo on her personal blog.
It is OK to use the Fedora trademarks without prior permission on personal web sites, provided that:
- the site indicates clearly that it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Red Hat or the Fedora Project
- To pass this test, a site must include some text like "This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Red Hat, Inc., or the Fedora Project" prominently on any page that includes the Fedora trademarks.
- If the Fedora trademarks appear in a page header or any area that is designed to be presented on more than one page, than the notice must also be designed to be presented on all of those pages as well. (I.e., if the Fedora marks appear in a site-wide header, the informational text must appear in that header or an identically site-wide footer.)
- the site does not use visual styling that could be confusing to viewers or visitors as to whether the site is part of Red Hat or the Fedora Project
- the site does not use the Fedora trademarks to imply endorsement of or affiliation with any goods or services, other than the Fedora Project itself
Bart wants to offer Fedora media for sale at his computer retail business' web site. Buck wants to have a prominent branded link to the Fedora Project on his business site, since he uses Fedora regularly to power his business. Bertha has a Linux consulting business and provides clients with services for Fedora systems.
It is OK to use the Fedora trademarks without prior permission on business web sites, provided that:
- the site does not use the Fedora trademarks to imply endorsement of or affiliation with any non-Fedora goods or services
- It should be OK for sites to use the Fedora trademarks to sell Fedora media.
- It should be OK for sites to use the Fedora trademarks to point viewers to official Fedora sites
- It should be OK for sites to note that they provide services for Fedora-based systems (installation, configuration, troubleshooting, etc.)
- It is not OK for sites to make it look like Fedora endorses *them*
Cathy wants to have a Fedora business card for trade shows to indicate she's an Ambassador.
It is OK to use the Fedora trademarks without prior permission on business cards to identify their affiliation with the Fedora Project.
- (Should we point people here to Ambassadors/BusinessCards? Do we want people to use the business card template that we advertise, or are we ok with anything homemade? We need to follow up on Ian's work to make a new Business Card template. --Max).
Dirk wants to make homemade labels for official Fedora media he's giving to other people.
It is OK to use the Fedora trademarks without prior permission to label media containing unaltered copies of official Fedora software.
Ethel wants to pass out fliers at an open source event and show that Fedora is represented there.
It is OK to use the Fedora trademarks without prior permission to promote open source events where individuals in the Project intend to appear as ambassadors, distribute Fedora media, or otherwise represent the project.
- Ethel must still follow guidelines for trademark presentation, i.e. not mixing Fedora marks with others, leaving enough whitespace around the logo, etc.
Regulated
Community members must obtain prior permission to use the trademarks in the following situations.
By Board Approval
Arnold wants to make a spin that includes only software that's in the official Fedora repository.
Community members may apply for Board permission to use Fedora trademarks on and in conjunction with media that includes only software included in the official repositories
- When these are hosted, the requirement for Board approval should be obsoleted by an automated mechanism that verifies the Kickstart file on which the spin is based.
(So, the granting of trademark permission is only based on whether or not 100% of the spin is in the Fedora repositories? Is there any sort of "usefulness" or "originality of spin" requirement, or is that a separate process? --Max)
Betty wants to make a spin that includes some software that's legal in her country, but not included in the official Fedora repository.
Community members may apply for Board permission to use the "Fedora Upstream" mark (TO BE DESIGNED) and the official Fedora logomark on and in conjunction with media derived from Fedora software but which includes other materials, provided that:
- ???
By Official Trademark License
Alexa wants to set up a domain called "fedora-rulez.org."
Community members may apply for a trademark license to use the Fedora trademarks in a domain name.
- Why not just let everyone do this? Because then we get things like "f***fedora.org". And how about "fedora11.org", "fedora12.org"... etc.? Ugh.
Brent wants to sell Fedora-branded CD cases.
Community members may apply for a trademark license to use the Fedora trademarks on non-software related goods, services, or other entities
- The Fedora Store (whatever that becomes) should be a way to do this through a pre-approved channel. Once the goods are determined to be acceptable, branding should be a given.
Unapproved Use
The following uses are not approved under any foreseeable circumstances.
- Violations of the Logo Usage Guidelines or Trademark Usage Guidelines
- Use of the logo in ways that the Fedora Board and/or Red Hat, Inc. deem unacceptable.
The trademark owner retains and reserves all rights to the trademarks and their use.
Uncategorized Use Cases
- Sarah has a spin that is 100% within the Fedora repository, but she is carrying several of her own patches, and including those in her re-spin. How does she know whether or not this is ok, and if she can still call it Fedora?
* It cannot be called Fedora. This would need to use the 'based on' Fedora mark above.