Hey EE4J PMC...
We have a couple of projects that either already have, or are planning to adopt logos that are based on "Duke".
We have what I think is a hard stop. Duke, while BSD-licensed, is a copyright and claimed trademark of Oracle. So, while derivative works of Duke are permitted, claiming trademark of those derivative works is at least excessively challenging (effectively impossible). Like project name trademarks, the Eclipse Foundation, asserts trademark ownership (albeit unregistered for the most-part) of project logos on behalf of the community.
TL;DR: the EF needs to be able to claim ownership/trademark of the logo, but can't make that claim for a derivative logo. So project logos cannot derive from existing (copyrighted and trademarked) property.
Further, there is a tight association between Duke and Java. There is an obvious tight connection between the Jakarta EE technologies and Java as well, but am concerned that reinforcing the connection between Jakarta EE technologies and Duke introduces confusion (maybe I'm thinking about this too hard).
I am also concerned that there is a tight association between Oracle and Duke, which may compromise vendor neutrality. I may well be overthinking this one as well.
So my question is... Do you agree with my assessment that project logos cannot derive from existing intellectual property?
Am I missing something important?
Thanks,
Wayne
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Wayne Beaton
Director of Open Source Projects
The Eclipse Foundation
