Trademarks for Open Source Projects
Discussion of why they are useful, by OSHWA Certification site:
https://certification.oshwa.org/process/branding.html
One link:
https://opensource.com/business/11/6/open-business-importance-trademarks-even-open-source-business
Note the second link there:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/165161/trademarks_open_source_friendly.html
Has a another link to trademarks being a menace to open source -
https://www.pcworld.com/article/164633/trademarks_hidden_menace.html
For example, you cannot use the word Linux for commercial purposes without getting a sublicense. There is nothing free about the word Linux
There is a way that a trademark can prevent redistribution, according to the article: it points to branded RHEL software, where removing the Red Hat logo may break the software. So trademark, like anything else, can be abused - if it is difficult to strip the trademark. A case of RH logo being hard to remove can be a trojan horse preventing redistribution. Point: make it easy for your non-branded value to be shared.
