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Mozilla Cracks Down On Merchandise Sellers

Posted by timothy on from the likelihood-of-confusion dept.

An anonymous reader writes "MozillaZine reports that the Mozilla Foundation is cracking down on those selling unofficial Mozilla-branded merchandise. This takes the form of an open letter addressed to retailers of goods that bear the Mozilla name or logos. The letter suggests that the Foundation are willing to work with those selling Mozilla wares, as long as they get a cut and the retailer isn't operating in the US, Canada or Mexico, where they would be competing with the Foundation's own Mozilla Store. Threats of legal action for non-compliance are issued, albeit with friendly overtones. This open letter is part of the Mozilla Foundation's campaign to better enforce its trademarks, an effort that began when the Foundation was launched in July. In a related move, the Foundation announced that the new Firefox artwork is not open-source and can only be used in official builds or those sanctioned by the Foundation - this has led to debates about whether Firefox is free enough to be included in the Debian Linux distribution."

6 of 565 comments (clear)

  1. Mozilla Firefox's plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just keep changing the name every month. No one will want to produce bootleg merchandise.

  2. As the saying goes. by JVert · · Score: 3, Funny

    Free as in advertising?

    At the sound of the tone free software will have officially "sold out".

    Damn this dragon! its only producing one egg a day! lets cut it open and harvest a lifetimes worth of eggs!!!

  3. Simple solution for Debian by dzym · · Score: 5, Funny
    rip out the firefox artwork, make firesomething a part of the default package, name the package mozilla-firesomething, and throw in a patch that makes sure the default firesomething configuration doesn't put together the words "fire" and "fox".

    Problem solved.

    1. Re:Simple solution for Debian by Stray7Xi · · Score: 4, Funny

      I propose Debian renames it FireFaux

  4. Wait... by GregThePaladin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mozilla has a store? Well I wouldn'tve bought my "I downloaded the best damn browser on the next and all I got was this lousy mousepad" mousepad had I known THAT...

  5. The missing ??? by michaelepley · · Score: 3, Funny

    The first patentable business method on slashdot:

    1. Write kick-a$!$# software
    2. Give away core product(s)
    3. Develop strong trademark
    4. Profit!!

    Seriosly, this is a good move for Mozilla; trademarks themselves are valuable, properly nurtured. The Mozilla foundation and the Mozilla's users would certainly like to be able to build value without ever having to sell its core product.