Shane Curcuru
Shane is founder of Punderthings, helping organizations find better ways to engage with the critical open source projects that power modern technology and business. He blogs and tweets about open source governance and trademark issues, and has spoken at major technology conferences like ApacheCon, OSCON, All Things Open, Community Leadership Summit, and Ignite.
Shane is serving a Vice Chair the ASF, providing governance oversight, community mentoring, and fiscal review for all Apache projects. Shane has served as a Director and as Vice President, Brand Management for multiple years in the past.
Otherwise, Shane is: a father and husband, a BMW driver and punny guy. Oh, and we have cats. Follow @ShaneCurcuru and read about open source communities and see his FOSS Foundation directory.
Sessions
Are you trying to build the brand of your community-led project? Is your community struggling to keep vendor marketing teams out of your project’s governance? Do you need a lawyer before you can “trademark” something, or can you do it yourself? (Tip: you can do it yourself!)
This AMA is here to help answer basic trademark law questions in practical, everyday terms for FOSS projects and the companies that contribute to them. Legal advice can only come from your own lawyer - but most community questions have practical answers that can get you started without a lawyer. Trademarks are all about the public’s association of a brand with a product - and most of that happens in the real world, not a lawyer’s office.
Bring your simple community questions about how trademarks work, and we’ll try to get you some practical advice on what to do. Similarly, corporate questions are welcome - for how you can effectively partner with a Foundation or community-led project without stepping on toes.