My Joomla News

Note: Permission to re-produce all material here has been generously given by Open Source Matters Inc. (OSM)

I though this might be of interest to other members of the Joomla! community, as I suspect that there are other websites that use the Joomla! trademark, and may not be aware of how to go about obtaining the correct permissions to do so safely and respectfully.

A couple of months ago (long after starting this blog I am embarrassed to say), I submitted MyJoomlaNews.com for permission to use the Joomla trademark within a domain. You can read the form at this link: http://www.opensourcematters.org/content/view/98/68/.

A couple of weeks later, I received this reply:

Hi,

We’ve approved your request for use of the Joomla! name in  your domain http://myjoomlanews.com/. Please note that this approval is not transferable or exclusive and is contingent on continuing compliance with all other OSM trademark policies.

On your site, please make sure that the first prominent use of the name Joomla! has the trademark symbol (R in a circle). Also, include the following staement: ” The Joomla!(R)  name is used under a limited license from Open Source Matters the worldwide trademark holder.”

Please make sure to keep us up to date with any changes.

Best wishes,

Elin Waring

President

Open Source Matters

It was great to hear back from OSM knowing that I was acting in good faith with the OSM organisation. But I did have one small thing that I wanted to clarify, so I replied:

Hi Elin,

Thank you for your email, and for approving my request to use the Joomla! name within my domain. I fully understand the conditions under which this approval is based upon and will comply fully with them.

I would like one small clarification though, does this approval require the ® symbol to be placed next to instances of the Joomal! logo?

Finally, would it be possible to republish these email correspondences on my blog (myjoomlanews.com)? I understand if you would prefer me not to, and I would respect those wishes, but perhaps it could be educational for other members of the Joomla! community to see how the request proposal functions.

All the best,

Nicholas Hudson-Ellis

After this, Elin graciously replied with this:

If the use is of one of our logos that has the symbol it must be left as is. The first use of the name on your site must have the symbol. 

My basic rule is not to disclose licensing agreements we have made with specific peope/companies/sites such as yours. What would be the context in which you would want to publish?  I’m certainly happy to have people know how simple (although slow) we make it to get permissions.  

Elin

After seeing that I would be re-producing the emails in a positive context, Elin graciously consented to have me re-produce the emails.

The process above might be unknown to many people in the community, it certainly was to myself. But it is nonetheless very important to work together to protect Joomla! and it’s trademarks for everyone.