NeoOffice CD Distribution & Trademark Usage

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Many people have expressed interest in obtaining a NeoOffice®/J CD, particularly users with dialup or metered Internet connections. Simultaneously, others have expressed interest in distributing NeoOffice®/J on CD.

According to the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), copies of NeoOffice®/J's binary may be sold or distributed, provided the source code is also included or offered as described in the license. However, the GPL dictates terms for distribution only as it relates to issues of copyright. Anyone wishing to sell NeoOffice®/J-branded CDs will also have to consider the trademark issue.

NeoOffice®/J, like other open source software packages including AbiWord, Mozilla.org software, and the Red Hat Linux distribution, has trademarked its name. Trademark law is seperate from copyright. Whereas copyright law protects creative works from being distributed without permission of the copyright owner, trademark laws exist to preserve brand names or graphical marks for companies, products and services, typically to keep products from being counterfeited or duplicated within a particular market. Trademark protection, for example, restricts anyone besides Nike from using their famous "swoosh" on their shoes or any other soft drink maker from calling their beverage "Pepsi" or any music service from calling itself "iTunes".

Similarly, the name "NeoOffice®" is a registered trademark (thus the "®" trademark registration character after NeoOffice®) of Edward H. Peterlin and is protected under United States and international trademark laws.

So, while the GPL allows anyone to copy, modify, and redistribute—or even sell—NeoOffice®'s source-code and binaries, trademark rules restrict how the software may be branded and marketed to the public. That is, if you wish to resell NeoOffice®-branded software, you must adhere to the NeoOffice® Trademark Usage Guidelines described below or negotiate a separate trademark license.

Otherwise, you may resell NeoOffice® (NeoOffice®/C) and NeoOffice®/J) without negotiating a trademark license provided you recompile and excise all references to the NeoOffice® word mark from the software.

Reasons why we use trademark protection? viruses, rip-offs (Luxuriousity), etc (e.g. protection/quality to the end-user), volunteer effort, funded by donations

NeoOffice® Trademark Usage Guidelines

NeoOffice® is a registered trademark of Edward H. Peterlin within the United States for all goods falling within International Class 9, including but not limited to software and computer software products. This trademark is in effect until 2013 under Section 8 of the Trademark Act of 1946.

The GNU General Public License (GPL) does not cover trademark usage, only source code copyright. Trademark usage is covered under different laws.

I [Edward H. Peterlin] will take whatever legal action is necessary to ensure no one uses the NeoOffice® trademark in any way I deem to be unfit. Any usage of the NeoOffice® trademark for software that is not directly affiliated with myself is hereby forbidden.

This should also serve as notice that usage of the NeoOffice® trademark is hereby granted for any mirroring of the NeoOffice® binaries that provides free access for any and all individuals. Usage of the NeoOffice® trademark is also granted for personal or non-profit use (e.g. burning CDs to hand out to family/friends, use for installs, handing out CDs at conferences, any non-proifit activity or organization, etc.).

The moment that an exchange of money is involved, usage of the NeoOffice® trademark is hereby prohibited unless 100% of gross margins on such sales are donated back to NeoOffice.org and Planamesa Software.

Definition of Gross Margins

"Gross margin" is the net profit minus cost of goods and services sold. For exmaple, if it costs you $9 to make a CD and you give it away for free, your gross margin is -$9.

My usage of the term "gross margin" is explicit. I am not in any way trying to impinge upon any free usage of the trademark NeoOffice®, in the literal sense of free.

This includes any use of the trademark NeoOffice® in such a way that it does not directly relate to the sales of software...e.g. listing on freshmeat, including CD inserts with magazines, giving away free CDs at conferences, giving away free CDs of any sort, etc.

CD Distributors

The following NeoOffice.org community members have volunteered to distribute NeoOffice®/J CDs in their respective regions of the world. Some may do so for free, some may do so at cost (cost of CD plus postage), and some may also require a small amount to be donated towards supporting the NeoOffice®/J effort.

Global

North America

  • Person X - contact info [default to PM on trinity?] - terms

Europe

  • JKT (UK only) - To contact, send a Personal Message (PM) to me via the Trinity website: [1] and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Other Sources (Magazines, etc.)

  • NeoOffice/J 1.1 RC is on the July 2005 Macworld UK CD [2], and their CDs may also regularly include NeoOffice/J patches.

How do I become a CD Distributor?

  • Your CD must contain items 1, 3, and 6 of this section
  1. The latest full binary release (e.g., NeoOffice/J 1.1 Release Candidate)
  2. The latest patch at time of burning (if you burn disk-per-person), as some patches can get large enough to be annoying to dialup users
  3. The NeoOffice/J source (ca. 1 MB .tar.gz archive) to satisfy GPL requirements
  4. Language Pack installer for your region, if applicable
  5. Localized help content installer(s) for your region, if applicable
  6. The Readme.rtf file from the official disk image (place this file at the root of your CD)
    You may modify or add additional information to the Readme.rtf file, but you must not replace any of the existing content of the file
Items 1, 3, and 6 are found on the official disk image (.dmg) downloaded from http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/download.php
  • Notify Edward H. Peterlin that you will be in compliance with the NeoOffice® Trademark Usage Guidelines
  • Transfer all gross margins and or donations from your distribution activities to NeoOffice.org and Planamesa Software on a regular basis
  • Optional:
    • Add yourself to the list of distributors above
    • A CD label and CD covers for Community Distributor use are available here (the CD label is also available via CVS)
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