I just received the paperwork certifying that "GENTOO" is now a registered trademark of the US. What that means is that Swift's notices of infringement now have not only the force of (US) law behind them, but a bit more urgency, too, since we are required to protect the trademark. So, here's what we're going to need: 1. All Gentoo docs need some sed magic to put the registered trademark symbol (that R-in-a-circle thingy) after "Gentoo" wherever it is used. (Alternatively, one can use the words "Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office" or "Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.") I'm not sure right now what needs to be done with text docs (such as man pages). 2. We need to establish procedures to identify and challenge the use by others of conflicting marks. We have 13 trustees right now, so my feeling is that we should have one person whose major trustee job is dealing with this issue, and we should probably also have a backup person for those times when the lead is unavailable. 3. We need to decide if we want to file in ther countries. Right now we have only done so in the US. I have no idea what the cost involved would be. 4. The foundation must submit a declaration of continued use between the fifth and sixth years after the registration date, otherwise we lose the trademark. Filing that declaration also gets us certain rights of incontestability, so it's a darn important thing. 5. The foundation must renew the trademark within ten years of the registration date. Incidentally, the official registration date is 12 July 2005. After the first ten years the requirement is a renewal every additional ten years. -g2boojum- -- Grant Goodyear Gentoo Developer g2boojum@gentoo.org http://www.gentoo.org/~g2boojum GPG Fingerprint: D706 9802 1663 DEF5 81B0 9573 A6DC 7152 E0F6 5B76