11.14.07
A Quick Word on Trademarks
I‘ve just come across this news article from The Register:
Blogger warned to delete Avis logo
A US blogger who reported on a court ruling has been ordered by car rental firm Avis to remove an image of its logo from his blog posting to avoid charges of trademark abuse.
[…]
“Understandably, trademark law is not within your area of expertise. Therefore, we trust that this was done out of ignorance and not based on an intent to misuse our mark to the benefit of your personal injury practice. We ask that you remove it immediately and refrain from any similar use in the future.”
If Novell was ever to complain about the graphics used here, then it should seriously look at how it broke the GPL’s spirit.
Oh, and speaking of Avis, Joe published the following article yesterday:
Whenever The VAR Guy hears chatter about Novell, he thinks of Avis — the Number 2 rental car company that proudly declares “We try harder” as it pursues the market leader (Hertz, er, Red Hat). Hmmm. Is 2008 the year that all of Novell’s hard work in the open source market finally pushes the company into the fast lane? UBS, the Wall Street analyst firm seems to think so.
So, according to Joe, Avis == Novell. Sign of things to come? A beautiful coincidence in the news? Either way, our modified logos are merely an expression of truth.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
James Maybach said,
November 14, 2007 at 2:21 pm
“UBS, the Wall Street analyst firm seems to think so.”
Right! UBS is a primarily swiss based financial institute (wealth management)