Open Usage Commons: Google’s Initiative to Manage Trademark for Open Source

6 years ago itsfoss.com

Summary: This is a summary of an article originally published by the source. Read the full original article here →

A Linux and Open Source Web Portal Google believes that “creating a neutral, independent ownership for these trademarks gives contributors and consumers peace of mind regarding their use of project names in a fair and transparent way”.

On behalf of It’s FOSS, I had a quick interaction with Heikki Nousiainen, CTO at Aiven to clear some air on the entire Open Usage Commons episode.Heikki Nousiainen: The stated purpose of Google’s Open Usage Commons (OUC) is to provide a neutral and independent organization for open source projects to host and manage their trademarks. By applying open source software principles to trademarks, this will provide transparency and consistency.

Personally, I think Google’s long term game plan is to protect its Google Cloud Platform from possible lawsuits over the use of popular source projects’ trademarks and branding.

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