Who is the Trademarks Working Group?
The Python Software Foundation Trademarks Working Group was created by the PSF
Board of Directors to monitor and authorize (or prohibit) use of trademarks
held by the PSF. The WG—initially dubbed committee—was created in 2008, and
has been co-chaired by me since 2010, adding Marc-André Lemburg in 2013. We've
had a variety of other members over the years, with Iqbal Abdullah being a
wonderful and helpful member of the WG for the last couple years.
marks, please do write to us. Even for those uses that are completely
mailing list archives than just not know about the use (the archive is not
public, however, since legal issues, even potential litigation, are sometimes
discussed).
member is not strictly required, just an interest in helping Python maintain
its branding). Helping with the working group is a pretty small time
commitment, but as with many volunteer efforts, folks often drift away from
such efforts over the course of years. By all means contact us if you have an
interest in trademarks and an hour or two a week to spend helping us in these
discussions.
incrementally increasing in number over the years—and "use trademarks"
worldwide. Obviously, legal regimes around intellectual property, and
trademarks serve a similar purpose everywhere though.
freedom, the licensing policy adopted by the PSF is very liberal and serves the
purpose of promoting the use and knowledge of Python rather than trying to
obtain commercial advantage (as many for-profit product marks are used).
wordmark
that is registered in many places. Nominative use of the name is
always permitted when it is used to describe the Python programming language.
In contexts such as books devoted to the language or about associated
libraries, tools, etc. we ask publishers to include a small notice in the
front matter that mentions the PSF trademark. We have an
with the FAQ having more examples and a less formal tone (probably best to
start with the FAQ if you have questions).
The policies around use of
little bit different from the Python wordmark, since they serve different
purposes. Essentially, we want to make sure that when those names are used,
they maintain an identity and advance the goals for which the marks were
created. The PyLadies wordmark is monitored and authorized by the
to them is the best place to ask questions of them.
Trademarks are Tricky
many really wonderful Python-related user groups, conferences, software
projects, publications, blogs, and other efforts that do a great job of
promoting Python, understandably don't understand the arcana of trademark law.
In particular, the rules we need to maintain about
derived logos
can feel
with copyleft and software freedom, it feels like the right to create derived
products should be as little restricted as possible, perhaps not at all.
work—nor, I believe, how they
should work
. Trademark is instead a kind of
consumer protection, it's a way of saying that a particular thing is what it
purports to be. In a way, a trademark is like a signature or a seal (whether
a physical or a digital version of such); it's a testament to authenticity of
a thing.
around them have a specific concept of
dilution
wherein merely
permitting
a use that makes a mark less distinct can remove the protection
altogether. Specifically, it means that if the PSF allows groups to make
completely well-meaning, and often even beautiful, changes to the shape of the
two-snakes logo, we could wind up losing the ability to stop malicious actors
from misbranding their non-Python things with the logo. To be clear, many
derived logos are absolutely permissible, and the FAQ discusses what
distinguishes permissible and impermissible derivations (and what can be
"inspired by but not derived from").
have come to understand the concerns of the PSF, and have modified their
customized logos in ways that allow us to authorize them. It's slightly
unfortunate that a few others have slipped through simply because the WG never
knew they existed until they were already in use, but we've worked with those
groups (largely conferences and user groups, sometimes software projects) to
fix things going forward. It's a little bit of politics, a little bit of
professionalism, but mostly it's just reaching out to the truly wonderful
people who make up our worldwide Python community.
