Governing structure

Posted Jul 16, 2024 19:20 UTC (Tue) by regularhunter (subscriber, #168788)
Parent article: SUSE asks openSUSE to consider name change

As an openSUSE user I can attest to the lack of strong governing body. It has always struck me as odd and makes it more difficult for the community's intent to manifest into action. Debian or Fedora's governing structure would be a good place to get ideas from, especially Fedora imo. An independent council of elected members would each preside over a well-defined area (Tumbleweed, Leap, Funding, Infrastructure, etc) with one member serving as project leader. No SUSE appointments. The council should be held to some sort of charter with clearly enumerated goals that the council members pledge to uphold. Council members can be voted out with a vote of no confidence in the event a member fails to uphold the charter.

As an aside, I saw some chatter on the openSUSE subreddit regarding potential project names. Multiple users suggested Chameleon for the new name which I like.

Governing structure

Posted Jul 17, 2024 0:29 UTC (Wed) by gdt (subscriber, #6284) [Link] (3 responses)

I'd suggest that you don't do conversations for naming new entities in public, having been through this nightmare. The extended conversation is a gift to DNS speculators, trademark sharks, and the like. Sadly the way forward is to select a committee, have them arrange the name and logo in private, line up all the associated external assets with a minimum of visibility, and trust that the committee was chosen well enough to have done a good job.

Governing structure

Posted Jul 17, 2024 10:30 UTC (Wed) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link] (2 responses)

I agree with GDT on this.

Also get someone who has actual trademark experience to help craft the name. Trademark law in various entities is very fuzzy and in some places and things which allude or could be similar to a known trademark can be considered infringing. [AKA A reptile which is similar to another one may also be seen as such in some locations.]

Governing structure

Posted Jul 17, 2024 11:02 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

Although, if they're not formally trademarked already, I would have thought Chameleon and Geeko are (tm).

Which while it won't stop DNS sitters, it does make life a lot harder for trademark trolls. I don't know how easy it is to argue bad faith in a trademark registration dispute, but openSUSE could easily argue that against a troll.

Cheers,
Wol

Governing structure

Posted Jul 17, 2024 12:03 UTC (Wed) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link]

My IANAL guess is that SuSE would be the owner of said trademarks as already used in various advertising, plushes and other things over a 20+ year lifetime. In the end, my advice is

* get a lawyer who is versed in trademark law in the entity you are filing your non-profit in
* don't talk about this in public beyond "We are working with a lawyer on this."
* get their advice and follow their lead on what can be said publicly and what can't

then do any naming workshoping etc.