[Conferences] Trademark policy for "PyCon" conferences

Nelle Varoquaux nelle.varoquaux at gmail.com
Mon Jun 2 23:41:00 CEST 2014


On 2 June 2014 23:14, Katie Cunningham <katie.fulton at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wait, I thought that any "official" Python conference had to have a
> Code of Conduct in place? Perhaps it was tied to getting PSF funds?
>

Indeed, to have PSF funds you had to have a CoC.


> As for it not being "popular" in the EU, both DjangoCon EU and PyCon
> EU have had CoCs in place for at least the past two years.
>

I am not in the organizing committee of those conference, so I don't know
how the discussions happened. For EuroPython, I wouldn't be surprised it
has been imposed by the Europython society, and not decided by the local
organizers. I know that for PyconFR, the first year, I just wrote the Coc
without discussing this topic with other people (so again, no discussion
needed), but for the french python association, it was a heated and very
unpleasant debate. For EuroScipy, the organizers didn't feel the need for
it, and thought it was redundant with british law (but it is a conference
which is much more professional than many python conferences, in the sens
that people that attend are scientists, thus go to many conferences for
professional reasons).

Now, for conferences such as PyconFR, that have existed for years, it is
much harder to tell the organizers "you can keep your name, but you have to
follow the new rules of the PSF, and that includes a code of conduct". Some
of these people have been organizing python meetups since before the PSF
existed.
That's my two cents.

Overall, I think it is good that people think about these problems, and
agree on how to react to such incidents, I just don't think it is good to
impose that on people.

Cheers,
N


>
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 4:43 PM, Nelle Varoquaux
> <nelle.varoquaux at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I understand the necessity of protecting the name "Pycon" and "python",
> but
> > being involved in several organization committees of conferences on
> python
> > or scientific python, I'll just comment on the following:
> >
> > "It is the policy of the Python Software Foundation to allow the use
> > of "PyCon" for conferences that focus on Python the programming
> > language, have adopted a code of conduct compatible with that of the
> > PSF, and allow anyone to attend the conference subject to a
> > reasonable conference fee."
> >
> > There are cultures and countries where the concept of a code of conduct
> is
> > not at all welcomed. We discussed about this for EuroScipy (happening in
> the
> > UK this year, but with organizers from all around Europe: France,
> Belgium,
> > Italy, Germany, etc), and we decided not to have one. I think this is the
> > type of statement that are "normal" in north america, but less so in many
> > European countries, one of the reason being that what is stated in the
> code
> > of conduct is just considered normal behavior.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > N
> >
> >
> >
> > On 2 June 2014 19:34, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at python.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dear conference organizers,
> >>
> >> the PSF board has recently discussed and voted on a new trademark
> >> policy for the term "PyCon". Our main intent is to protect the
> >> name from unwanted third party use for the benefit of the Python
> >> community. We simply don't want to run into another python.co.uk
> >> trademark situation:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://pyfound.blogspot.de/2013/02/python-trademark-at-risk-in-europe-we.html
> >>
> >> We have not yet put this up on the website, but since the question
> >> has come up, I'd like to share it with you via email as upfront info:
> >>
> >> """
> >>
> >> "PyCon" Trademark Policy
> >> ------------------------
> >>
> >> In order to protect the term "PyCon" against unwanted or misleading
> >> use by third parties, the PSF claims the term “PyCon” as a trademark
> >> worldwide for conference activities. The PSF is additionally pursuing
> >> registration of the mark in various jurisdictions.
> >>
> >> It is the policy of the Python Software Foundation to allow the use
> >> of "PyCon" for conferences that focus on Python the programming
> >> language, have adopted a code of conduct compatible with that of the
> >> PSF, and allow anyone to attend the conference subject to a
> >> reasonable conference fee. Use of the trademark is subject to
> >> approval by the PSF trademarks committee (write to
> >> psf-trademarks at python.org).
> >>
> >> The PSF may update this policy from time to time. Updates will be
> >> published and announced by the PSF.
> >>
> >>
> >> PyCon Conferences Around the World
> >> -----------------------------------
> >>
> >> PyCon conferences are community-led and community-focused gatherings
> >> of Python programmers around the world. Want to start a PyCon in your
> >> own country? Contact us! We want to help.
> >>
> >> The following are authorized PyCon community conferences:
> >>
> >>     "Kiwi PyCon", "PyCon NZ" in New Zealand
> >>     "PyCon Asia Pacific", "PyCon APAC" in Asia
> >>     "PyCon AR", "PyCon Argentina" in Argentina
> >>     "PyCon AU", "PyCon Australia"  in Australia
> >>     "PyCon CA", "PyCon Canada" in Canada
> >>     "PyCon CH", "PyCon China" in China
> >>     "PyCon DE" in Germany
> >>     "PyCon ES", "PyCon España", "PyCon Spain" in Spain
> >>     "PyCon FI", "PyCon Finland" in Finland
> >>     "PyCon FR", "PyCon France" in France
> >>     "PyCon IN", "PyCon India" in India
> >>     "PyCon IR", "PyCon Iran" in Iran
> >>     "PyCon IE", "PyCon Ireland" in Ireland
> >>     "PyCon IT", "PyCon Italia" in Italy
> >>     "PyCon JP", "PyCon Japan" in Japan
> >>     "PyCon MY", "PyCon Malaysia" in Malaysia
> >>     "PyCon PH", "PyCon Philippines" in the Philippines
> >>     "PyCon PL", "PyCon Poland" in Poland
> >>     "PyCon RU", "PyCon Russia" in Russia
> >>     "PyCon SG", "PyCon Singapore" in Singapore
> >>     "PyCon SE", "PyCon Sweden" in Sweden
> >>     "PyCon TW", "PyCon Taiwan" in Taiwan
> >>     "PyCon UK" in the United Kingdom
> >>     "UA PyCon", "PyCon Ukraine", "PyCon UA" in Ukraine
> >>     “PyCon US” in the United States
> >>     "PyCon UY", "PyCon Uruguay" in Uruguay
> >>     "PyCon VE", "PyCon Venezuela" in Venezuela
> >>     "PyCon ZA", "PyCon South Africa" in South Africa
> >>
> >> If we have forgotten a national or regional PyCon conference
> >> in this list or have used the wrong naming, please write to
> >> the PSF trademark committee for approval.
> >>
> >> It is also possible to use a pycon.org sub-domain as home
> >> for the conference. Please write to webmaster at pycon.org to
> >> request a sub-domain.
> >>
> >> """
> >>
> >> As you can see, we have tried to grandfather all existing
> >> PyCon conferences that we could find and are aware of into
> >> the resolution.
> >>
> >> If you have questions, please let me know.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> --
> >> Marc-Andre Lemburg
> >> Director
> >> Python Software Foundation
> >> http://www.python.org/psf/
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >> information should not be discussed here.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Python Conferences mailing list: Conferences at python.org
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> >
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> > information should not be discussed here.
>
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