Google Launched Open Usage Commons, a trademark management organization for open-source projects

July 8, Google announced a new organization called “Open Usage Commons”, which aims to help open-source projects manage their trademarks.

In collaboration with a number of individual contributors, SADA Systems, and more, Google has launched the organization. As “open source projects have historically struggled to manage their trademarks ― i.e., their project’s name, badge, and logo,” they want “to help open source projects assert and manage their project identity through programs specific to trademark management and conformance testing.” The organization will offer trademark protection, usage guideline, and conformance testing to projects that join Open Usage Commons.

They explain that as long as the trademark is properly managed, project maintainers can define their identity and assure the downstream users the quality of what they offer.

In addition to Google contributing the initial funding, “Angular”, and “Gerrit”, and “Istio”, Google-owned open-source projects, will join the organization. The existing users of these trademarks are allowed to continue using them as long as they follow the current project usage guideline. There won’t be a change in the technical roadmaps and contributor communities.

The Open Usage Commons board of directors includes Allison Randa (Ph.D. student at Cambridge University and open-source developer involved in Python, Parrot, and many other projects), Charles Isbell (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Chris DiBona (director of open source at Google). They will make decisions about future strategy and budget.

They will shortly publish consideration criteria for projects who want to join Open Usage Commons.

Open Usage Commons
https://openusage.org