[License-discuss] Doese GPLv3 allow misrepresentation and grant rights under trademark law?

[Bruce Perens]

There are no affirmative statements granting trademark rights. Savvy
trademark holders don't name the program that they distribute with their
valuable trademark. So they avoid any question of estoppel or the
exhaustion doctrine.

And there is certainly no affirmative statement granting a right to
misrepresent! One generally handles these things under the Lanham act.
Remember, we have the entire body of law, not just what we say in our
licenses.

On Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 08:55 Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos at riseup.net> wrote:

> Quote GPLv3:
>
> > [...]
> > 7. Additional Terms.
> > [...]
> > Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you
> add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders
> of that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:
> > [...]
> > c) Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material, or
> requiring that modified versions of such material be marked in
> reasonable ways as different from the original version; or
> > [...]
>
> Since GPLv3 says that "Prohibiting misrepresentation" is an opt-in, it
> could be argued in court that misrepresentation as per "pure" (no
> supplemental terms) GPLv3 licensed material is permissible?
>
> Quote GPLv3:
>
> > [...]
> > e) Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some
> trade names, trademarks, or service marks; or
> > [...]
>
> Again, "Declining to grant rights under trademark law" is an opt-in.
> Does the reverse logically follow that GPLv3 "grant rights under
> trademark law"?
>
> So any source code released under GPLv3 contains any trademarks, that
> effectively equals giving up that trademark?
>
> Kind regards,
> Patrick
>
> _______________________________________________
> License-discuss mailing list
> License-discuss at lists.opensource.org
>
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/attachments/20190321/c93fadf5/attachment.html>