NewsForge: Red Hat revamping trademark policy in response to community questions

"Red Hat is revamping its trademark policy after a NewsForge story on the company's enforcement of that policy spurred dozens of comments and questions from the Open Source community.

Since the release of Red Hat 7.2 in October, the company has been more actively pursuing what it sees as trademark violations by CD resellers such as UnixCD.com and CheapBytes.com . Red Hat is asking those retailers to not call what they sell "Red Hat," because of customer confusion over whether the resold product is a complete version or includes service from Red Hat.

The NewsForge story generated dozens of responses, some supporting and some criticizing Red Hat's trademark enforcement, and several questions. Among the questions, posted and unposted: What if the CDs were labeled as Unofficial Red Hat? What about LUG members who trade CDs labeled Red Hat? What about distributing under a pseudonym?"

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• SRO: Red Hat Makes Peace(Sep 10, 1999)
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• IT-Analysis: Trademarked Linux distribution - the dream under threat?(Sep 03, 1999)
• PC Week: Red Hat defends its trademark(Sep 03, 1999)
• Linux Weekly News for September 2, 1999(Sep 02, 1999)
• Red Hat Allegedly puts Foot Down on Trademarked Brand Name(Sep 02, 1999)