Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Ha ha. My grandfather was a government meat inspector. Me, I worked on HW and SW for voting machines. So I'm a non-voting vegetarian.

Anyway, though . . .

PayPal donations can be sent in a variety of currencies. My account is denominated in USD. Since I need to do a currency conversion anyway, what's better on the receiving end? EUR, I guess? Or is it any less expensive to do the conversion on the receiving end? Either way it takes a cut of the available donation funds. Suggestions, preferences?

For that matter, I can send it in CHF if there's any point in that, although I suspect I'd be needlessly complicating things.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

I don't know about USD accounts but when I was sending my donation to HtheB, I tried both. Using GBP, my nominal currency, PayPal wanted to charge me £0.10. Using EUR, it did not charge me anything. I took a note of the exchange rate and it was the same in both cases. So I went for sending in EUR. The recipient received what PayPal said they would receive, so I assume it did not charge them anything either.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Do donations to Maemo Community e.V. qualify for tax deduction?

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Not yet :(. Bylaws (basically §2 Purpose AND §3 Altruism of the Articles of Association) already qualifies for tax exemption, but this needs to be requested seperately from the registration. This would also qualify for a "charitable" paypal status with reduced fees. Afaik, Chemist is after it.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Please correct me where I'm wrong:

Maemo TM was needed by Nokia, purchased by Nokia, given to the community because they decided to drop maemo and there was community, mini-PR.
Community has the TM for years, does nothing with it (we're not marketing any maemo products, so TRADE-mark is useless, but we have it hey), it needs rebuying, since we have it ppl drop money, but why? Nokia did not want to spend those 2k euro as it is useless when not selling any product. Why would community buy this? Hey we had this, we surely need it, right? We never used it. We have no use for it in the future. You can print maemo logo shirts anytime you want, logo is not trade-mark.
Can we instead spend it on infra? This at least has impact on our usage of this site and any other repos etc. Trademark is just buying Nokia cr*p that Nokia didn't need and 'gave' us. Unless we plan to release maemo device, then sure, lets keep it and spend money on it


Please feel free to point where this went wrong

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

I'm afraid you are wrong there szopin...
the maemo trademark includes logos...

http://maemo.org/legal/terms_of_use/trademarks/logos/
http://maemo.org/legal/terms_of_use/trademarks/
https://wiki.maemo.org/Talk:Task:Maemo_brand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark

"The essential function of a trademark is to exclusively identify the commercial source or origin of products or services, so a trademark, properly called, indicates source or serves as a badge of origin. In other words, trademarks serve to identify a particular business as the source of goods or services."

"A trademark is typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements"

"The owner of a trademark may pursue legal action against trademark infringement."

and lastly ..
"The unauthorized usage of trademarks by producing and trading counterfeit consumer goods is known as brand piracy"

So once we aren't the legal holders of the trademark...
there is only the other side of that fence...
making us brand pirates if we utilize in any way what is no longer ours by legal right to use.

the trademark essentially covers a vast area...
not just a logo or a picture or two.
it covers "the brand" essentially.
that is what we would be dropping.
all rights to what we think of ourselves here.

Sure ...I agree infra is important.
It's like saying .."the car needs maintaining so I can get to work every day..."
that is ....
until something like this pops up...
and then it's more akin to "having" to do "something" or you are giving god-knows-who the legal right to come and graffiti the house, damage your property, ruin your reputation, steal your dog and cat (or logos in this instance) and set fire to your garden and lawn...because you gave away the right to legal protection and allowed literally anyone to "purchase" your right to legal protection.

And no ...
you wouldn't ...
I wouldn't ...
no one could use the logos...the brand...
anything pertaining to the trademark...
at all...
except the new legal holder of the trademark could .

It means that ...oh yes ...you "could" make for yourself ..
hell you could do whatever you want...
start defying the new legal trademark owner ....
make aalllll kinds of stuff pertaining to the maemo brand...the maemo trademark...
t-shirts...flyers, posters, leaflets, buttons, stationary, business cards, merchandise utilize the maemo catch-phrases...
do it all ...and sell it.....

But I'll tell you now...
if we let the trademark lapse and a nightmare picks it up... ...
even if you only make stuff or do or say stuff pertaining to yourself...
-if you are caught infringing on the trademark in any way...walking down the street with an unauthorized "maemo" t-shirt on...you're done. Whatever it is... can be seized and you told to stop...let alone the possibility of court action and being sued.
-if you are caught selling unauthorized maemo brand merchandise...
you are done..Yet again same possible results...
-fact is..the new holder of the trademark could also press the community here to strip every mention of the trademarked name "maemo" from here...and that could be just the beginning...

So I think it goes a little further than ..
"spending money on something that never did anything for us considering it's just something no one ever cared about in the 1st place" ..

rather put it in the context it really is...

"What good does having the entirety of our brand trademarked for our protection from infringement ..under the law...do us?
It's been peaceful and quiet?
Why do we need to fork out monies to prevent the possibility others may try to do an unfair battle with us the legal trademark holders?
Why do we need the bloody useless thing for... everything is good the way it is ...right?
And of course that must continue when we have no legal recourse ...right?"

That sounds a little more ominous when throwing in the fact ...everything is fine and quiet...as long as we have the legal right to being left in peace ...
It may seem it...but I'm not fear-mongering here.
Let the trademark lapse and just wait and watch the poo-tsunami hit

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

That's not entirely true, as this is community logo, Nokia never had this, from your first link:
Here is the new logo of the Maemo community. Please be sure to use the logo in context of the Maemo community and not in context of Maemo, the software platform that powers Nokia devices such as the Nokia N810.

Unless maemo community trademarked its logo and not got this as a leftover from Nokia. (but community logo is under copyright anyway, someone created the design, so you don't need to go and register for 2k euro just to use, same as if you created a comic, you're covered).

btw tradermark policy doc references (www.maemo.org/intro/trademarks/logos ) which 404s

It looks like we already are overdue in US (someone mentioned it lapsed there), poo-tsunami did not happen. What exactly will happen, sorry to call it fear-mongering, but will... I don't know, Xiaomi register that TM and release Maemo-android phone? (that actually does sound scary/nasty) This website is safe (been in use for far longer than whoever will register TM). And it's not like in the southpark episode that people ran out of company names, so if they release a product called maemo (I don't know, inflatable duck for example), don't see how that hurts Maemo as a platform

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Very good question by szopin.
And an even better comprehensal answer.

Only thing to clarify is how wide community would like to spread the safety of TM renewal.
For sure we should buy the EU renewal to be safe for running the e.V. and the servers/domains in Europe.
I agree it is questionable to renew world-wide but we already limited to mentioned countries.

It is not we want to sue anyone using the TM. But more like hindering them as a first counter step, as they would need to break the law ( which for sure in a few ciuntries will not stop them ;)).
And as a counter measure for getting sued!

So it is up to the community (and their wallets) to decide.
I am in.

I hope endsormeans and my post help you to decide.
But keep on asking questions, discussing or give information...

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Going further (through the wiki page), it looks like we will go from maemo® to maemo™ (from registered to unregistered).

So we can actually sue/pursue legal action even with unregistered trademark, since we've been using it for a decade, we should be fine

Nokia had commercial interest in maemo® so they registered the trademark as they were providing services/products. We as community around the platform don't seem to have a commercial interest, looks like we will be just giving money to lawyers (which we still can do with unregistered trademark if we want)

and going even further (this part is interesting):
So if there is a chinese toy inflatable duck called maemo, we're screwed, we haven't been actively enforcing and looking for people to sue, so probably getting them to court now will be considered untimely (and again, we can do this even with unregistered trademark in US/Canada...). We have the maemo® repositories running, so we most likely actively are using the trademark at least (I hope this counts, we haven't released any maemo products in a while).

Ok, after the wiki read, it really looks like a relic from the times maemo was planned as a commercial product/service by Nokia and to protect that. Still don't see how we will suddenly be sued by tradermark trolls (we're not cybersquatting, if they take us to court with unregistered trademark that's been in use for a decade we still have better legal grounds). We could use that money if not for the infra/car, maybe for code audit once task force reverse engineers the whole codebase? Plenty of other ways to spend that money in a meaningful way for the community, and not giving it out to lawyers/beaurocrats

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Well, this donation request is for TM renewal.
As I stated in my first post, you may detail your donation so that if we cannot use your funds for the TM registration we can refund it to you.

Similarily, you can donate to "General Maemo infra maintanance" for example, prohibiting your donation to be used for TM renewal.
Or any other cause you'd like to support.

Just remember to add that bit of information to your donation, we will honor your request of course!

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Thanks juiceme, meant that mostly in the way that outside of the fact that 'TM is up for renewal', there doesn't really seem to be any reason to do that. We as a community did not reach the conclusion that we need to register it in the first place and the only reason to dish out the money for TM seems to be: scary things can happen.

edit: which are not even that scary, as per wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unregistered_trademark
we can still take ppl to court and make them stop infringing (though probably we will not get rich that way)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Here is one:

What are those classes and do we need all three? If this is for mostly sentimental reason, would dropping to one class for 900€ not suuffice? Any extra funds could be used to purchase the TM in China, for example, to prevent the flood of szopin's Maemo-branded rubber ducks.

I do not know about others but I did it because I think that owning a TM gives the community a more "official" status. It adds a little more weight in case we need to negotiate a deal with someone: "We are a registered organization and look, we also have a registered Trade Mark!"

It may not be so important for commercial reasons, as you correctly point out, but it is more than just sentiment.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Classes were listed below:
I'm actually fine with maemo™ , never used maemo®, maybe it does sound more official, no idea (actually it looks corpo-like, yikes, add to that 'with limited liability' and we're through the roof official)

Last time we negotiated with someone was with Nokia, and they ended up giving us that TM, surely didn't help them :P

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Unfortunately, for renewal of EU registration, the same costs applies whether you decide to renew 1, 2 or 3 classes.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Would like updates on first post with progress and updates of gathered money.

As well maybe we need to add donation button with percentage of needed money, that would be reset every month. For example if expected to gather 200$ a month (that would be 100%) it will show how % was gathered from 1st of month and will reset every 1st of month to 0 %.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

There is unfortunately not that much time left, iirc in August all TM are already out of 'grace period' (like already happened with US). And that would make everything even more expensive.

Board needed to wait for this announcement as there still the hand-over from HiFo to e.V. and the bank account setup to be finished in advance.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Here's the donation state as of today:

Code:

---

mysql>
mysql> select date, account, total_amount from all_donations order by date;
+------------+--------------+--------------+
| date      | account      | total_amount |
+------------+--------------+--------------+
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal      |        9.46 |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal      |          10 |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal      |          10 |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal      |          15 |
| 2015-07-01 | Deutsche Bank |        26.82 |
| 2015-07-02 | PayPal      |        19.27 |
| 2015-07-02 | PayPal      |        47.05 |
| 2015-07-02 | Deutsche Bank |          100 |
+------------+--------------+--------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select sum(total_amount) from all_donations;
+-------------------+
| sum(total_amount) |
+-------------------+
|            237.6 |
+-------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

---

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Done (100 EUR)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

I'll be sending some soon... I'm just waiting for my monthly salary to arrive, because I've gone RED in my bank account. Have to tap into my Savings for a week or two.

By the way, I think Dave999 should pay for most of the money.
He's the one that uses this site more than anyone XD

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Travelling whole day today, planning to send some money tonight. Will update once it's done.

Update: Already send via PayPal.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Please put this in there, update amap (as much as possible)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

done :)
here is 10chars, you happy now?!

Edit:
juiceme, there is a typo on the sql for Deutsche Bank (it misses the "s")

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Ya, shows up I'm not a native german speaker!
Anyway it's just a tag in my database, so it won't matter really :D

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Sent 25EUR via Paypal.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

I am not sure if I understand that correctly. Are you saying that, depending on the number of classes, a new registration costs 900-1,800-2,700€, but a renewal costs 2,120-2,120-2,120€?

In that case, would it not be more prudent to take the gamble and let the TMs expire and register them anew, with only one class? (IANAL so this may be a completely idiotic idea.)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

AFAIK the renewal fee is EUR 900 for 1-3 classes (so you get the first two additional classes for free).

In #26 @Win7Mac said
I take it that the EUR 2120 include those EUR 900 plus "service fees for an agency."

If that is the case we might do it ourselves (it should not be that difficult, but for work-conflict reasons I cannot myself take, privately, part in anything having with to do with intellectual property).

I gave the money and ran :) Now it's up to you (e.V.) to decide the best way to do this, including the YES/NO decision and the decision of paying for an agency to take care of it (which in many cases may be advisable as it's really easy to hit a mine and lose money and rights..)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Where did those f'ckin 900€ arise from?
But yes, for registrations as well as their renewals, you have 3 classes included.

Costs for renewal of EU registration sum up as follows:
1.780,- € - registration fee
340,- € - late renewal fee (since we're already in grace period)
oops,- € - forgot agency fee (but as reinob mentioned, we might be able to fill out papers ourselves, otherwise add ~10%)

Please be reminded that upon 2015-08-28 the completed registration forms incl. Nokia-signature need to be received by WIPO. So our deadline is a few weeks earlier... more like end of juli...

PS: Is there a lawyer aboard? ;)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en...-their-payment

That's OHIM (Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market) = EU-wide trademark.

AFAIK WIPO should have no business here (EU), but if you/we want the rest of Europe and possibly the world, then I guess WIPO is the way to go.
This may also explain the higher fee.

I'm a patent examiner, so I kinda work on the other side :)
(but you're free to pick which side is the dark one :)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Sent to halitbal because I didn't see the donations address until later...

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

I've gave the money back to you again, you can send it to the right one now :)

Edit:
I've removed my donation email from the older post before someone else sends me free money :p

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Thanks, done :)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

[Sigh]
hehe...so..we have limited time to raise funds..as well as find an affordable method..and be able to accomplish it in that span of time...
ok...welllll
I believe I've worked out an affordable solution that can help.
Proper t-shirt printing will not be cheap...silk-screening, laser or other methods..
As well shipping to whatever destination likewise would add to price..
as well as specific size and or colours of shirts...as well the quality of the shirt helps...one does not need the "finest" quality ...an average quality shirt (at least) and up helps..regardless the process...and a decent shirt (that doesn't come in a pack-o-ten :D) isn't exactly cheap.
So all told out of a 40 euro high end (estimate thrown by a fellow member) for donating and getting a shirt...roughly 1/3 of that donation would be cost...forget even shipping costs.

So in true Macgyver fashion...
and in following in our DIY (with help of course) philosophy...
And to pinch every possible penny and yet get the best value and quality...
I have an answer that cuts the cost significantly...
and everyone is happy
took a while...but found a product locally...
Get ready for it...
Flashback to the 1970's...
but upgraded from analog to digital...

Laser printed iron-on's :D
with applied intense heat (clothes iron)...
the plasticized inks melt and weld with whatever fabric...
mondo-weird frankly...
but cool considering any tone, hue and pattern is executed laser flawlessly.

It means...
I can utilize a faster more efficient, less costly process than silk screening...it isn't dependent on "getting enough orders"
I use my studio's uber-printer (do it for posters, prints and such)..
I print off what is needed...rough cut them...toss them into hard ..flat...photo shipping envelopes (MUCH cheaper for shipping).
Once received ..just grab your favourite shirt and your iron (If you don't have one...visit your mom..Mom's always got an iron.) and
Bam everyone gets a shirt.

The base cost breakdown

The supplies and inks and the few pennies on recalib., maintenance and machine wear and tear and cost per printed unit of about say 10" x 7" ...would run me about $12 in CDN pesos...(which is um..8-9 euros I think? to put it in an understandable perspective for you continentals :D)
So size 5"x3.5" would be half the cost.
Or half that size 5"x3.5" to 2.5"x1.75" ..half that cost..
that is for lighter coloured t-shirts...
the cost in specialty patch paper and the consumption of almost triple the inks for dark t-shirts means effectively whatever size the patch is...for a lighter patch...effectively double that price in cost for say colour on a black t-shirt.
(Does that make sense? sorry trying to keep proportions, supplies, cost in cdn and euros has me befuddled...I'm beat..didn't sleep last night for goin' to a show and staying up all night afterwards to get all this done and up here ...I'm going for a nap now..)

In all ...this is a very efficient and cost effective method of making t-shirt logos I must say...

I imagine that ...so we don't get someone donating "just" a euro..to take advantage...(heaven forbid that would happen) ..perhaps a minimum donation of..."_ _ _" whatever...that way... it is incentive to donate something at least a bit more substantial ...
Shipping from my locale to wherever is the receivers cost of course...I can't factor that in universally without everyone paying for everyone else's shipping regardless where they live (and I don't think that is fair...)
So yeah..
..
the first photos were the acid test.
I needed to see what works and what doesn't as well as push the limit of applied heat and time to see result and if it would be too difficult for literally anyone to do their own shirt...
My results are that anyone can apply this successfully.
There are limits to the process..
The types of patch paper for dark shirts (black, forest green, etc) are much more expensive ...like double...for applying light colour to a dark shirt...as well ya gotta do the process of application properly...no deviation.
So here are the test runs...
1stly ..I figured a wee bit of humour in a red t-shirt with the breast logo being a take on the "maemo community update cssu"..and altered to "maemo community red-shirt brigade" after the humourous expendable star trek security officers.
I was hoping that this with the white lettering "RED-SHIRT" would show up decently on a red t-shirt..
http://s26.postimg.org/6pxamnul5/redshirtready.png
It did not ..
http://s26.postimg.org/oveuegjh5/muckedupredshirt.png
I penned it in to the space where it should be..
sorry for the glare...also there was some slight fraying or fragmentation at the edges..some dissemination of the patch...can't use an iron for too long...just a couple of minutes of even distributed pressed heat..and pulling it off the waxed ironing paper before completely cooled also doesn't help...however it did properly weld with the fabric ...still
Subsequently ..using this lettering instead..
http://s26.postimg.org/v7tzoamjd/redshirtreadyfinal.png
worked fine..
Test number two...how much iron heat and for how long can impact the patch..deliberate use of an iron at it's hottest for over 4 minutes resulted in some bleed-through from the waxed paper backing which is used upon peeling off the patch and placed upon the top of said patch to stop (of course) the iron melting the patch.
this is the result. (the camera pouch was to give some idea of scale...terrible idea I should have used a fabric ruler instead.. :D)
http://s26.postimg.org/n4vtcz1y1/aer3nd3r.png
Finally after a few runs it is quite obvious to see there is a decent room for success by anyone...It just boils down to the exact and proper application of moving the iron..not fast but not slowly ..for 3-4 minutes at most...then letting it cool completely ..results in...
this ...
http://s26.postimg.org/aerkzvtzt/ae_org.png

Now ...just off the top of my head here..
speaking of donating incentives...
I don't think it could just be applied to that..
project incentives...like...oooh...
I dunno..successful porting of something like gtkgep for our devices .. :D
Why a gesture so magnanimous by a kind soul ..would probably have me actually shipping at "my" cost a whole shirt and all to the lucky bugger who finished it first :D
So yeah ...there we go...it doesn't have to be "just" a donation reward incentive..
It could be project reward incentive...

or could hold a raffle at some point ..that'll raise funds..
tickets could be a modest sum 5 euros or so each...
1st, 2nd and subsequent lesser prizes could be ...well whatever...but people would surely buy raffle tickets in the hopes of winning...[insert whatever fabulous toys, devices, prizes here] ...for the modest investment of a few bucks ...(advert-line)..."Who knows? ..you may just win [a huge dollar value in stuff] for throwing down 20 euros in tickets!" ...lotta people would I'm sure ..in the off-chance hope of winning cool-sh#t. I know I probably would buy a ticket.:D

Y'know the old saying ...' Ya can't play if you don't win.." ..
um...other way around... or sumthin'...

...Anyway...mull it over guys...

If someone thinks of a more efficient, time saving, non-prohibitive low-cost method that is better..
I'm more than happy to go with that instead..

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

im in for 20euro :)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

I don't think we care if there's a Chinese toy with the same name. In fact, given the TM limitations we already have, such a toy could co-exist already with no issues. The concern is (IMHO) that said toy becomes a sensation, and the company sues us in an attempt to get the domain from us.

Mounting a legal defense when you have a valid and current registered trademark is quite minimal. You basically have to show up, say "we have this current and active trademark of X years", and the case is effectively closed. Without that it becomes a much more involved matter, and is far from guaranteed. Just ask the guy that owned the Groupon website before Groupon existed.

Personally, I feel this ounce of prevention is way better than trying to having to cure it later. Will we need to? I don't know. But is it worth the gamble to not spend the funds for another 10 years?

I'd say renew with the minimal set needed (eg EU only). I don't see the advantage of registering in the US, China, etc. Holding legal ownership in the EU, where the servers are, should be enough to prevent any problems. It also forces jurisdiction to the EU, which means things will be easier to maintain by existing members in the long run.

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

There is big difference, he could lose it all for cybersquatting (much different, check wiki page) especially since:
his plans for non-existent business were pretty much the same as groupon, so yeah, ducks, duck em, but if they come up with open source system called maemo, even better, the more the merrier. We are over a decade old in this business with trademark (non-registered doesn't mean non-existent), worst case scenario we get free 250k instead of spending 2k, not going to argue any longer, feel free to fund lawyers/beaurocrats, I myself am not willing to chip in for this case (going to make a donation, but for other things, audits, infra, you name it, something that will actually benefit the community), still think it's kind of fear mongering: you heard about patent trolls, they might come up with trademark trolls and then we'll be fcked, really?

(edit: btw this is a text book case of cybersquatting gone right, he got 250k for website name, he didn't have history or business, we have both and both pretty solid, so yeah, I'm still unconvinced, but you do whatever you feel is right)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Thrown my two-bits in the pot..

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

The fury frog has done it's duty.
Another 20 quids on your account...
:D

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Sorry, but that's not how that works. There's no guarantee that we'll get $250K for anything. The real worst case is our trademarks expire, we fail to renew at all, and a company (like MS) comes along claiming they own the mark and/or want the domain, demanding we cease and desist, filing legal paperwork against us. At which point we have two options:

• Ask for compensation and hope they're feeling generous, then "move" and change the name/scheme/skin/logos. (Your $250K option, assuming they'll go for that.)
• Spend a boat load of money we don't have to fight it in court, hoping to win a counter suit and break even.

Note that in the $250K case, we would "win", but at the same time would lose the right to the domain and/or continuing to do what we're doing here for all intents and purposes.

By spending some funds now to renew the minimal set in just the EU (or even just Germany), if a company comes along later, we get to:

• Force the venue in which the legal battle is fought to a place we have actual people on the ground (eg Germany).
• Have a very minimal cost for defense, since with an active TM it's an open/closed case that almost any lawyer would take it on for free, and counter sue for their expenses.

I'd be willing to bet that a large chunk of that $250K "settlement" went toward legal expenses, since there were international court filings and such months before that agreement was reached. The guy involved probably walked away with very little in his pocket from this, instead being happy to not be in a crater of debt after initially holding out against a company with big pockets.

But hey, you believe what you want and I'll believe what I want. I'm good with pitching in some funds for what amounts to a 10 year insurance policy. If you're not, that's your call. If we get enough in time, hopefully, it will happen. If not, well, that will probably go into the kitty and hopefully be used to ward off lawyers later if needed. :)

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

Here's the donation state as of today:

Code:

---

mysql>
mysql> select date, account, total_amount, currency from all_donations order by date;
+------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
| date      | account      | total_amount | currency |
+------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |        9.46 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | Deutsche Bank |        26.82 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |          15 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |          10 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |          10 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-02 | PayPal        |        19.27 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-02 | PayPal        |        47.05 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-02 | Deutsche Bank |          100 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-03 | PayPal        |          25 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-03 | Deutsche Bank |          50 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-03 | Deutsche Bank |          100 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-04 | PayPal        |          20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-05 | PayPal        |          20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-06 | PayPal        |          150 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-06 | Deutsche Bank |          50 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-07 | PayPal        |          20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-07 | PayPal        |          25 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-08 | PayPal        |          20 | CAD      |
| 2015-07-08 | PayPal        |        95.9 | GBP      |
| 2015-07-08 | Deutsche Bank |          20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-08 | Deutsche Bank |          200 | EUR      |
+------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
21 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select sum(total_amount * exchange_rate) as calculated from all_donations;
+--------------------+
| calculated        |
+--------------------+
| 1061.6399999863002 |
+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

---

Re: [Announcement] Fundraiser for "Maemo" Trademark registration
 

just sent 20 :)