[osol-mktg] OpenSolaris, branding & trademarks

[Ben Rockwood]

Sara or Claire are the ones to answer this with authority, but finding 
no public responce I'll assume no ones answered it yet, I'll do my best.

Tim Foster wrote:

>Hey Folks,
>
>I've a quick question about the usage of the OpenSolaris marketing
>material.
>
>Currently, OpenSolaris is a trademark of Sun - as per 
>http://opensolaris.org/os/about/buttons/
>
>Is this stance likely to continue ? I mean, while I understand that it's
>important to protect trademarks, it also kinda hampers community efforts
>to generate marketing material that could be beneficial to the project.
>
>The fan buttons are great, but the current usage policy for them means,
>that (even if I had larger versions of graphics available) I can't use
>them in other material or extend them, improve upon them, etc.
>
>What's the story ? Could there be a more relaxed acceptable-use policy,
>or set of branding guidelines generated in order to help out those
>willing to promote the project further. [ I know sun.com has these for
>it's logos, for example ]
>  
>
This came up during the Pilot by myself and several others. 
The guidelines are, I think, fair enough: the buttons on that page are 
created by Sun, feature Sun trademarked logos, etc.  While I'm not sure 
whether Sun would take action against a site using the OpenSolaris logo 
for personal purposes (I don't they would) I doubt anyone wants to tempt 
fate, so the solution is, imho, quite simple: create your own logos.
Here is an example:  http://cuddletech.com/OpenSolaris-logos.png

You'll notice that the current OpenSolaris logo (the one designed by a 
preschooler) is simply a derivative of the current Solaris logo, which 
is just the "solaris" rendered in the Trebuchet MS font with the L and I 
cut off so they are level with the rest of the lower case text (how much 
did that cost?).  I've never liked it frankly.  A much much nicer 
version is to render mixed case "Solaris" or "OpenSolaris" in a similar 
but more attractive font such as Moderna.  Render in similar colors that 
are most attractive to you, or simply choose your own colors for the 
logo, and create any type of fan signage you like.  Being as the logo 
and signage doesn't incluse any type of icon (like the solaris logo) I 
don't see any problem with creating your own stuff.  If you tried to put 
an arch over "solaris" you quite obviously would be in danger of 
infringement. 

Anyway, make your own!  I wasn't wild about the buttons and roll out 
signage so I created my own mini-marketing compaign using my own logos 
and signage:
http://cuddletech.com/img/codeos_frontpage.png
http://cuddletech.com/img/codeos_frontpageb.png (with tag)
http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=229  (dtlogin 
replacment and desktop wallpaper)

Anyway, things are pretty flexable I think.  With the ease of 
implementing your own custom stuff I don't see a lot of reason to worry 
with the legal implications of modification of the fan buttons, though I 
agree that morally I would prefer that it was "anything goes" with 'em. 

>- sorry, I'm not trying to stir things up here, I'm just trying to see
>how I can help spread the word more effectively ...
>  
>
God bless you sir.  Stir away. :)

>A page on what could be done to help the marketing of OpenSolaris would
>be really useful for folks like me who have little clue as to where to
>start, but the willingness to lend a hand regardless !
>  
>
Indeed.  The trouble is that we currently don't have an 
evanglism/marketing community, just list.  If we had a community page 
for evanglism we could put up todo lists, resources for evanglists, 
etc.   We need to coordinate and empower evanglists as much as possible 
to have a combined voice and impact I think.  Lets see if we can get one.

>(would me starting to think about ideas, and posting them to this list
>be helpful at all ? I work in engineering, but as I don't have much to
>add to the OpenSolaris code just yet, I figured I could maybe help out
>here instead)
>  
>
Yes!  Toss out all the ideas you have!  Thats what lists are for.  
Besides, we need some excitement on this list. ;)
I'd love to hear your ideas.

>	cheers,
>			tim
>
>
>ps. strictly speaking, I know I'm probably just talking about
>advertising here, rather than the more encompassing term "marketing",
>but I guess we have to start somewhere...
>
>  
>

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