Red Hat, Inc. is famous for trademark enforcement. Back in the day (2002, 2003) Red Hat sent cease and desist letters to a number of small Linux distributors for misusing the Red Hat trademark. The company even posts trademark guidelines which are not law, but the company portrays them as such. I once received one of these letters from Red Hat, so maybe I’m a little bitter. But now, in an effort to protect their trademark and to protect the public from confusion, Red Hat has ordered the DataPortability WorkGroup to cease and desist using a logo that is “identical” to Red Hat, Inc’s Fedora brand.

Red Hat, Inc. (”Red Hat”) recently became aware that on your website,
located at http://www.dataportability.org, you are using art work that
is identical to the Fedora Infinity design logo owned by Red Hat.
Specifically, I am referring to two images on your site: the green and
white logo, as well as the blue and white logo.

Now, in this case I think I have to agree with Michael Arrington and say to the DataPortability people, “just get another logo.” I don’t really think that Red Hat has any legal basis to stand on, but that won’t stop them from wasting the Group’s time and resources. I successfully fought Red Hat’s overzealous trademark “guidelines”, but it took almost a year of my time going back and forth. Better to just change the logo and move on in this case I believe.

Just to be safe….
*Red Hat, Fedora, and the Infinity logo are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc

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