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> IANAL, but legal protection for trademarks extends to any usage wherein it would create sufficient consumer confusion. Let's be honest though: walk up to an
by feld 12y ago
> IANAL, but legal protection for trademarks extends to any usage wherein it would create sufficient consumer confusion.
Let's be honest though: walk up to any Joe on the street and ask them what GNOME is. They're not going to recognize it as a *nix desktop environment or a retail POS system.
- imgabe 12y ago"Any joe on the street" is not the consumer in this case. People purchasing retail POS systems would know what it is. They are the consumer. They could easily be fooled into thinking that Groupon's product is affiliated with the well known Gnome software when it clearly isn't.
- dec0dedab0de 12y agoNo, but I bet the IT people who decide which computers to buy for POS know what GNOME is.
- the_ancient 12y agoThe standard is not "ask any joe on the street" but "Will the create confusing among the target consumer" I say yes, People making purchasing choices over a companies IT infrastructure will know what the Gnome Foundation is, that they create software of high quality, and I can see the case for Confusion. ie IT Manager: WOW Gnome is now making a great looking POS System. So the fact that "Avg joe" does not know what or Who Gnome is does not matter in the least bit