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GNOME Trademark Battle with Groupon

The GNOME Foundation has never had a legal issue more emotionally jarring than having to defend its trademark, our very identity.

In May 2014, it was discovered that Groupon [GRPN], a publicly-traded corporation with $3.2 billion in revenues (year 2014), had filed multiple trademarks for various versions of the name "GNOME" (G NOME, G-NOME, and GNOME) for a point-of-sale product they called an "operating system". The onus was on the GNOME Foundation to defend our mark.

Shortly after learning about the trademark infringement, the Board began discussions with Groupon's legal representative through our own phenomenal trademark lawyer, Pam Chestek. Knowing that an unsuccessful legal battle's effects would be far-ranging, the Board decided this was too pressing an issue to ignore. Pam expressed to Groupon the outrage that the Foundation felt with Groupon's attempt at appropriating the GNOME name, and the need for Groupon to abandon their continued efforts to usurp it. With each interaction, it seemed that Groupon was not only uncooperative, but they were also actively ramping up their adoption of the name and filing a new set of applications at the trademark office. Ultimately, they filed a total of 28 trademark applications for GNOME name variants. Due to Groupon's actions, there was little progress in starting serious discussions toward a suitable resolution. As the deadline for filing our opposition to Groupon's first set of trademark filings approached, it became clear to Board that more serious action needed to be taken.

The Foundation Board spent quite a few meetings working on a plan for how to address the situation.

The Board came to the consensus that the Foundation would have to try to fundraise enough money to launch a lawsuit against Groupon for trademark infringement, and make the trademark conflict public—a fact the Board communicated to Groupon several times. The Board had an internal deadline of the beginning of November to file the lawsuit, which they hoped would allow them to raise the $80,000 USD goal amount, the approximate amount needed to begin the process of opposing the numerous filed US trademark applications.

With time growing short, the Board prepared a media strategy, chose the fundraising apparatus, and made sure the Foundation communicated a message that would resonate with the public. The idea was to pursue a media blitz — posting on social media and talking to the press about our fight to enforce our trademark.

The Board wanted to bring as much attention and scrutiny to the situation at hand as they could in order to raise the needed amount of money for the battle. All of the Directors of the GNOME Foundation had some serious reservations about being able to raise the amount of money necessary for all the filings in time. Contingency plans were discussed regarding what the Board would do if the deadline arrived before enough money was raised, or if Groupon continued to file even more applications, thereby dragging the GNOME Foundation into a sustained legal fight that would quickly deplete our funds. Hope rested in ending the conflict quickly with a focused public campaign.

The Board and an extended Family of GNOME community stalwarts came together bringing their various skill sets and iterating on the elements of the media campaign until completing messaging that would have the best chance of success. Even if the campaign failed, the Board could take pride knowing each and every one of the Directors had put their heart and soul into doing all that could be done to give GNOME the best chance it had to defend its trademark.

The first message, a call for help, was sent from GNOME's twitter account at 5pm U.S. Pacific time on November 10.

48 hours later, it was over.

Under fire from all corners of the Internet, and with immense social pressure from the general public, Groupon capitulated, abandoning all their trademark applications and eventually acknowledging the pain it had caused GNOME. They apologized to the GNOME and FOSS communities.

Throughout the entire ordeal, members of the GNOME community were completely humbled by the Free Software Community, who not only generously donated, but also spoke out about how important the GNOME brand is, and how objectionable it was for Groupon to attempt to coopt it. It was amazing, inspiring, and deeply humbling. GNOME's success was their success.

At FOSDEM, this story was related to a packed audience in the legal devroom as well as the subject of Pamela's Chestek's GUADEC 2015 keynote.

awesome pictures go here

Pamela Chestek stated "I didn't consider it a close case legally, but GNOME was up against a much better-resourced opponent and often the bigger one wins. So it was wonderful to see the GNOME and larger free software communities pull together on this common goal, with a result that surprised even the most optimistic. My job was easy after that."

The number of organizations and individuals who amplified the Foundation's message and passed it on was numerous. The GNOME Foundation is very grateful. In the end, $102,000 USD was collected, and will go towards improving GNOME and securing our trademarks globally. We, those of us in the GNOME Foundation, thank all of you who came and supported us.

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Etherpad

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Pass to Allan Day for final approval or edits. Need to add images, otherwise complete.

2024-10-23 11:05