[osflash] on using the word "Flash" in your projects...

[Justin Clift]

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Claus Wahlers wrote:
> Wow that's great news. Not.
> 
> I went and searched for trademarks in the Adobe and Macromedia sites,
> and found nothing at first. The Adobe Trademark Database [1] doesn't
> contain anything related to "Flash". On the Macromedia site i found a
> lost mention [2] that Flash is a trademark of Macromedia Inc though.

Hi Claus,

Not sure what search terms you used for the Macromedia site.  For me,
"trademarks" got better results on the MM site than "trademark".

Anyway, as of a few minutes ago, the MM site has the info at:

  http://www.macromedia.com/help/copyright.html

Part of it (about 80% of the way through) reads:

*****************************

Copyright and Trademark Information

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright © 2005 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All
rights reserved.

TRADEMARKS: Please see the Trademark Usage Guidelines for a complete
list of trademarks;

*****************************

The above words "Trademark Usage Guidelines" are a hyperlink to this
page on the Adobe site:

  http://www.adobe.com/misc/permissions.html

On the left hand side of this page is a link to "List of Adobe's
trademarks" in PDF format.

The link (as of a few minutes ago) is:

  http://www.adobe.com/misc/pdfs/USGenExtTMdb_winter05.pdf

This has links to an agreement form outlining various things:

  http://www.adobe.com/misc/agreement.html
  (not all that relevant to this discussion)

... plus a "complete list of trademarks" (as indicated by the MM site),
and also links to this page:

  http://www.adobe.com/misc/trademarks.html

Which gives a list of various trademarks and their owners (generally not
Adobes').  (Probably products they've referenced through the Adobe site.)

Anyway, in the above "USGenExtTMdb_winter05" PDF, there is a section
called "Former Macromedia Trademarks".

Listed under that is:

  Flash®

(and many others).

"SWF" isn't listed, so that's potentially the direction for people to take.

As a thought, I wonder if it would be practical for places using "Flash"
in their product/site names to request for a perpetual/non-restrictive
license to continue using the name or some such?  That may allow usage
but still take enforcement action against future abusers.

Hope this helps.

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift


> [1] http://www.adobe.com/misc/trade.html
> [2] http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/style_guide/logos/flashplayer/
> 
> By the way, dear Adobe, quite a while back you promised on this list
> to clarify your general position regarding some Flash related open
> source projects. Any news?
> cheers,
> claus.
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