[greggles]

<blockquote> Does Acquia have differential access to the trademark based on Dries' ownership of both Acquia and the trademark? In practice, the most high profile private branding of Drupal products and services are mainly in Acquia: Drupal Gardens, Acquia Drupal. </blockquote>

Be careful asking a question and then citing marginally evidence as if it proves an answer to the question...

The question is if they got those trademarks fairly. The evidence you cite next is that their brands are high profile. These two things are not really connected.

To try to actually answer the question, I don't believe Acquia has extra access to the trademark process. Having gone through the trademark process I can say that an external team of lawyers manages and adjudicates the process which keeps Dries at arms length from all decisions.

But even without an audit of the process of granting trademarks it's pretty obvious that "Drupal Gardens" is a name which meets the guidelines for a commercial use of the trademark since it doesn't imply the nature of the service. "Acquia Drupal" is probably covered under fair use since it truly is the Acquia version of something.

[AlexUA]

Sorry if it wasn't clear, but that was a direct quote from nedjo, so I'm not actually citing anything other than him. To be honest, I'm not sure what the deal is with the trademark, but I do think it's problematic that it's in private hands.