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I have a cybercafé in Tunisia (North Africa) and I want to promote Ubuntu and hence I want to call it "Ubuntu Club" and I want to know whether Canonical will allow this. I love Ubuntu and I want to promote its OS and products in North Africa. BTW I will give my cybercafé and Ubuntu-like design. Will Canonical allow this and support me?

From the outside it will look something like this:

Thomas Ward
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Utnapishtim Linux
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  • http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/intellectual-property-policy – user300458 Mar 03 '15 at 22:56
  • Is it illegal or not? I can work for Canonical if you want me too! I will use Ubuntu in this cybercafé?!!! – Utnapishtim Linux Mar 03 '15 at 23:04
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    @UtnapishtimLinux We can't speak for Canonical, who holds the trademark. You need to contact their legal team on this issue, we can only point you to their terms and policies. As Wilf stated, the terms of use state that you need Canoncal's permission to use UBUNTU or BUNTU (similar enough to the trademark) for any kind of thing that could infringe the trademark, including calling your cybercafe "Ubuntu Club", as "Ubuntu" is a trademark already, and using it as part of the trademark of your establishment violates trademark laws. – Thomas Ward Mar 04 '15 at 02:52
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because you are asking a question that cannot be answered by the community. You must reach out to Canonical's legal division to discuss it with them, as you are likely violating the trademark of "Ubuntu" in your proposed use case. – Thomas Ward Mar 04 '15 at 02:53
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    @ThomasW. I think it can be answered "This is what their site says, but you really need to ask them". – Seth Mar 04 '15 at 03:09
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    I think it could fall under the common law(?) concept of fair use, but you should consult a local lawyer to be certain. Nevertheless, to avoid antagonizing Canonical, you should ask them for their recommendations so you don't get on their bad side. Synergy is what you're looking for, not conflict. That's the spirit of Ubuntu. ;) – Aaron Hall Mar 04 '15 at 05:48
  • @Seth this is not a trademark law forum - we have given those answers and the OP refuses that acknowledgement - in either case the OP needs to reach out to Canonical's legal division. – Thomas Ward Mar 04 '15 at 12:30

3 Answers3

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Hmmm.... when you use 'Ubuntu', you could mean the philosophy or something, but using it in that way (as a logo/trademark) it wouldn't be using it that way and would infringe it - sort of like what it says here:

You will require Canonical’s permission to use: (i) any mark ending with the letters UBUNTU or BUNTU which is sufficiently similar to the Trademarks or any other confusingly similar mark, and (ii) any

I would contact Canonical for permission... you never know they might even help or something :)

By the way, this site is run by StackExchange - see also [1] [2] [3]

Community
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Wilf
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As pointed out in the copyright policy mentioned in the comments section above (http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/intellectual-property-policy) you need to ask for permission to use the term ubuntu as it is a trademark of Canonical.

wie5Ooma
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Ask them, there is nobody here that's going to give you permission & any thoughts on whether you can are just thoughts, not fact.

http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/contact-us

doug
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