Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ValentineC 614 days ago
> The problem is nobody knows, because the proposed rules are unwritten.

Under US law, trademarks can be used by other companies under fair use:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use_(U.S._trademark_law)

It'll ultimately be up to the courts to decide what the extent of this fair use is.

2 comments

If you are a car repair shop, it would be fairly difficult if you could not name the brand of cars that you support. If you call yourself "Ford Repairs" you might get into trouble, but saying that you can change oil on a Fords seems fairly clear as to be permitted under fair use.

From what I see it seems a fairly common practice that companies get explicit trademark permissions if they are an official retailer, official supplier, have employees that is official trained, or has some other direct relationship with the trademark holder. Companies without such permissions have to rely on fair use rules. Retailers and webshops generally also list what product or brands that they sell without being in conflict with trademark.

> It'll ultimately be up to the courts to decide what the extent of this fair use is.

That's the unquantifiable platform risk that has been added.