The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which was officially launched in June, has signed an agreement with the Open Source Initiative (OSI) to settle a dispute over its Open Source Hardware (OSHW) logo. Following concerns that the logo OSHWA was using to denote the open hardware nature of devices was too similar to the OSI's trademark, both organisations worked out an agreement that clarifies the difference between the logos and the areas they are applied in.

The agreement states that the OSI logo only applies to software code and that OSHWA's mark should only be used for physical objects. Under trademark law, the similarity of two marks only becomes a source of conflict if there is significant chance of confusing the two. The joint agreement clearly delineates the areas of application for both logos and sees each organisation concentrate on what they specialise in. With the arrangement, worries about a dispute between the two groups have hopefully been put to rest.

(fab)