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Plone community owns now the word Plone
Plone Foundation finalizes the trademark transfer. The community, via the Plone Foundation, now "owns" the word Plone in nearly all areas of the world. This article outlines Plone Foundation role protecting collective interests. It also highlights Plone Community values, base of the development of a thriving ecosystem where developers, SME and users work together for the benefit of all.
Based on excerpts from Paul Everitt’s weblog
Protecting the Plone and PloneGov trademarks
As background, when the Plone Foundation started its bootstrapping process in 2004, securing the trademark was one of the first tasks under the "Protect and Promote" mission. Two issues, though: (a) the Plone Foundation didn't exist yet and (b) no budget was available yet.
So Zea Partners was used as a non-profit agent to do the trademark work, contractually-obligated to transfer the trademarks at the end of the process. Additionally, 10 or so companies pooled money to front the Plone Foundation for the costs. Later, when the Plone Foundation came into existence and had the money, these 10 companies were re-paid, as was Zea for the registration work.
In late September 2007, just before the annual conference, the last shoe dropped: the registration finished in one of the last remaining countries. Xavier Heymans from Zea prepared the transfer papers, Paul Everitt signed at the Naples Plone Conference, and the work is done.
This is so cool in so many ways. It's fair: the playing field is level and managed by the community. It's effective: Plone the Foundation can set a goal, execute it, and get a high-quality result. It's motivating: users and small companies around the world can see the value of having a neutral brand, and actually front money to make it happen.
Major kudos to all involved, especially Xavier Heymans and Dominique Crassaerts (our trademark expert in Brussels) for the hard work over the years.
PloneGov at the AICA 2009 Congress in Rome