Is ZEA trying to steal Zope's logo in Europe and slow down the Zope Foundation?

Origin of the trademark issue

At Europython, I was told that the Zope Europe Association (ZEA) registered the trademark (they exactly registered "Circle-Z + the zope word", the Zope logo actually) about one year and an half ago without letting Zope Corporation (ZC) know. This surprised and shocked me a bit but worse was coming.

Six months before ZEA registration, Zope Corp registered the trademark Zope (only the word) in Europe (6 countries at least) using the Madrid Protocol, at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). ZEA's registration is thus invalid (or illegal), in at least those 6 countries. Rob Page (CEO of ZC) told me that he will ask ZEA to transfer the mark to ZC (avoiding the delay and cost of a cancellation procedure) and that ZC really wants the mark clean and owned by them as a pre-requisite for creating the Zope Foundation. I was thinking that ZEA would accept the transfer without any problem (since they registered it only to protect it).

One day, drinking my coffee, I read a mail from Rob Page (CEO of ZC) saying that ZEA doesn't want to transfer the copyright back to Zope Corp. (even if Zope Corp. indemnify them with the amount it cost to buy the mark in Europe). I couldn't believe this! ZEA was also agreeing to transfer the mark to the Zope Foundation (not Zope Corporation) in exchange for a certain amount of money (20 K euros which is apparently more than the real cost of such a registration).

The big problem is that Zope Corp is willing to license irrevocably Zope trademark to the Zope Foundation. Such a license is not possible with a trademark dispute running on and the Zope Foundation will consequently be delayed (since it could create some legal problem for the Foundation or for Zope Corp).

How can we understand ZEA transfer refusal? What is the point of view and the position of Nuxeo (that is the biggest Zope dedicated company in the world, with Zope Corp. — Yes I like writing that, if you are wondering :-)? Here it comes...

Point of view

ZEA is illegitimately owning the mark (and an invalid mark :-). ZEA is not a charity. ZEA is an association of companies that aims at selling projects and that is bidding in Europe on some deals, against other companies. No problem with that, we are in a free market. But I would like to stop reading things like "ZEA represents the european Zope community". It does not.

ZEA represents only its members' interest not ones of the whole Zope Community in Europe. Again, no problem with that, it's totally normal, but please don't claim anything else.

My concern on this topic is the claim of protecting Zope Community interests in Europe against the evil american company... Well, at Nuxeo, a pure european company, we really prefer to see this mark in the hand of Zope Corp. And we prefer that for two main reasons :

• First Zope Corp. was the key player that produced Zope code, invented the name, designed the logo, put the code OSS and spend some money to market it. Why would someone steal this property?  Why would someone bite the hand that feeds him? Especially when this one is eating each day. So unfair!
• Then, Nuxeo is not ZEA's member (it's our choice, even if I can't remember to have received any invitation) so ZEA doesn't represent our interest. I don't see any reason to prefer to have the mark owned by ZEA than ZC from this point of view. But since ZEA seems to be unfair, I can feel some danger letting them keep the logo of the technology that supports our core business. Disclaimer: we don't see ZEA as a competitor and even if it would be the case, competition is healthy... when it's fair!

Impact on the Zope Foundation and the whole Zope Community

After some discussions, Zope Corporation made a clear sign to the community: they are in the process of creating a Zope Foundation to hold the copyright of Zope (2 and 3) and to manage this Open Source project (and related projects if ZF wants to). That is a big chance for the whole Zope Community to solidify Zope's image with an independent entity managing it: more members will be involved, more solid and credible the technology will be. I was thinking "Eventually, this is the final boost Zope needs to explode and take a big part of the application servers market", working at this project and waiting for the Foundation official launch... I won't explain here all the benefits of such a foundation and how it will ease and boost Zope's business and use, this post is about ZEA's big mistake. But clearly it is really damageable to slow down the launch of our awaited Foundation.

Is ZEA willing to slow the foundation launch?

The direct impact of ZEA's mess is slowing down the Zope Foundation launch (really expected and applauded by a large majority of the Zope Community when announced (IRC, Zope list, Europython, etc.)).

With Zope Foundation owning Zope code and managing the project, the whole community is assured that Zope is secured even if Zope Corp is bought by VeryVeryEvilBadCorp! That was expected by so many people (including many ZEA members and ZEA board members) for more than 2 years...

So, why would Zope community active members and democracy / cooperation herald be willing to stop or slow the Zope Foundation? I really don't know, even if they would fear to lose some illegitimate power in favor of a legitimate and independent entity...

Note: if I was Zope Corp. I wouldn't have proposed to indemnify: ZEA did something illegal and they have to repair that mistake (I will presume that they did a mistake, not an intentional law infringement when registering). And really don't have to pay for other's mistake.

About trademarks' "fair usage" and irrational fears

These days, I can read many mails about how Zope Corp can be bad, owning the whole copyright (but give me one reason to not apply those fear to ZEA instead of Zope Corp?). Some seems to think that Zope Corp. would have the power to prevent people to use, write and pronounce the word Zope.
The reality is a little smoother and fair :-)

There is something called "fair use" that is commonly accepted. It specifies that an owner has to authorize others to use his trademark if there is no other way to say something and/or if there is no confusion about the source.

For example, you use "MySoWonderfulCompany provides worldwide Zope wonderful experts to develop very large projects" in all you marketing material. Well, nobody can prevent you to use this sentence if you're really doing Zope stuff. But, if you say "MySoWonderfulCompany provides Zope services" and you basically are providing Java or C# stuff, Zope Corp will sue you, take your home and make your wife leave! :-)

In short, there is no way for Zope Corp to prevent anyone to use Zope, if those people respect the source (do not say that you are Zope inventor — actually, if you say that, you might fear a lot more Jim's supernatural power than ZC ;-) and if they really are using / providing / coding on / selling Zope. Don't forget that the Foundation will own the code and manage the project, if we can create it!

And the more important is that nobody has interest in preventing anybody that is doing Zope stuff from using the Zope trademark: we all have interest in make Zope stronger, more famous, more used and more known (especially ZC and ZC acquirer if there is one some day, I think).

Call to ZEA's members

To conclude this, I want to make a call to all ZEA members and ask them to stop this trademark dispute that is:

• unfair for Zope Corp. (what would you be selling, right now, if ZC would never have released Zope as OSS?) and ZEA non-members (do we really need to act as competitor? I would prefer to see all of us — members and non-members of ZEA — acting as partners willing to develop and expand Zope market).
• damageable for Zope image: what does this mean for your current and potential customers? What will people think of our community seeing this kind of childish dispute? Well, maybe we could all act as professional and stop shouting at / hitting each other and concentrate all our effort to build a strong community, a rock-solid platform and a large usage... We have talked a lot about the Zope 10x project for years, I see this issue as reverse marketing ROI :-)
• useless and non-productive for all of us: count the time we are spending on this issue... Is there nothing better to do?
• slowing Zope Fondation launch: is it really what you are expecting? If the answer is yes, I will do all I can to take the mark back from ZEA because I will begin to worry about ZEA's real intention and goal...

All of you, ZEA members, please make ZEA give back this mark to its legitimate owner and stop this silly dispute to eventually allow the launch of the Zope Foundation! I'm sure the whole Zope community would really appreciate and thank you all in advance!

Now, let's focus on kicking Documentum ass... :-)