Trademarked Feed Icon?
Last December I noted in “One Icon to Rule Them All” that Microsoft adopted Mozilla’s Feed Icon for RSS and Atom. Opera was soon to follow, and the world lived happily ever after… for six months.
Now there is a hubub a-brewing over Mozilla’s move to trademark the icon. As discussed by Daniel Goldman, Opera has been asked to sign a licensing agreement to use the icon. (Wonder why they didn’t ask Microsoft first?)
Enter the trolls who will assume this is a gambit for cash. A truer perspective is more likely along these lines: Mozilla invented the icon, and wishes to protect it from being trademarked or abused by Some Evil Entity. (I’m sure there is some porn site out there who is working on making the icon out of body parts. Ew.)
Mozilla has been obviously happy to have Opera, Microsoft, and the world at large use the icon, as the last six months of communal iconic goodness have shown. Now, by filing a trademark, they can ensure that it is reasonably protected when used by other companies. See Mitchell Baker’s fuller explanation of the thought process at Mozilla headquarters. There is no talk of money, just appropriate use.
This seems to be the perfect example of when the community should listen and wait to see how this unfolds, rather than jump to conclusions. Unfortunately, Randy Charles Morin on the RSS Board is already talking about a vote to “remove support” for the icon. Even suggesting the “nuclear option” at this point seems really hasty… hopefully they’ll sleep on it and decide to give this one a little more time.
June 13th, 2006 at 05:07
I suspect that if Microsoft invented and trademarked this icon that you would have written something very different.
June 13th, 2006 at 05:24
Touche! Still, the Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit and Microsoft is quite profitable. I would expect the motives for a trademark in the two organizations to thus be quite different.
And, I tend to view happenings like this one through the lens of “what have I come to expect from the parties involved.” Just think of our reaction if it was SCO that had filed for the trademark.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:26
In my ignorance, I thought it was Matt Brett who created the icons…does he have affiliation with Mozilla?
June 13th, 2006 at 14:18
I believe Matt is an enthusiast who created and gave away vector art of the icon when Microsoft announced their adoption of it. See Matt’s post on the details.
June 13th, 2006 at 16:50
I believe, the trademark is owned by Mozilla Corporation a for-profit entity, not Mozilla Foundation.
June 13th, 2006 at 16:51
Actually, I checked and I believe I wrong.
June 13th, 2006 at 16:56
Thanks, Randy. Regardless, you do have reason to be concerned and we need to keep a sharp out for what happens next. Lets hope the “nuclear option” doesn’t become necessary.