FSF Settles Suit Against Cisco

[Tom Metro]

Seth Gordon wrote:
> Tom Metro wrote:
>> (Of course a company could use the badge in violation of the terms, and
>> the FSF would be back in the same boat needing to sue them. Though
>> perhaps that'd be a more obvious and cheaper case to prosecute.)
> 
> If the company believes that it is in compliance with the GPL, then its 
> defense against a trademark-plus-copyright suit would be exactly the 
> same as its defense against a copyright suit.

With a GPL copyright issue:
-the plaintiff has the burden of producing evidence showing the
violation, which can be challenging with embedded products, especially
if the vendor is providing no firmware or encrypting the firmware;
-while copyright is straight forward, there are technical complications,
so you depend on getting a judge that understands the technical issues;
-the GPL is a somewhat lengthly license, subject to interpretation.

With a trademark issue:
-evidence consists merely of archived and current screen shots of the
vendor's web site and marketing materials;
-judges understand trademarks;
-FSF could individually approve each trademark licensee, granting them
use rights only after determining to their satisfaction that the vendor
is in compliance; (At least initially, this would eliminate GPL
interpretation errors;) It would be expensive, but for the major
vendors, might be worthwhile.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/