Abstract
Trademarks play a significant role in the FOSS ecosystem – while copyrights and patents are freely shared in FOSS, trademarks are not. The project’s reputation is at stake if it allows malicious software, software of poor quality, or software that does not function as expected, to be distributed under the same name. Free and open source software projects can, and therefore generally do, exercise their exclusive rights under trademark law. This chapter covers the basics of trademark law as relevant to FOSS projects, the types of goods and services one typically finds associated with FOSS projects, the role of community engagement in trademarks, theories for the lawful use of another’s trademark, and a discussion of various ways a trademark owner might try to undo the FOSS license using trademark law as the vehicle since copyright is largely unavailable.
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