# Why I donated to GNOME

> Why I sent $100 to GNOME's legal fund against Groupon: a trademark defense that matters for every free-software project, not just one desktop.

- Author: Rajesh Namase
- Published: 2014-11-11
- Category: Craft
- Canonical: https://namase.com/journal/donated-to-gnome

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Just donated $100 to the GNOME foundation to defend their trademark against Groupon, you should donate too! #trademark #GNOME

More details: https://www.gnome.org/groupon/

This legal defense is not just about protecting GNOME's trademark; it is about asserting to the corporate world that FLOSS trademarks can and will be guarded. Not just by the project in question, but by the community as a whole. As a result, all FLOSS trademarks will be strengthened at once.

-- Lucas Nussbaum, Debian Project Leader

GNOME has been an integral part of the free and open source universe for over a decade and half, and is a vital component of Fedora's desktop operating system. I'm shocked and saddened that a company which describes itself as "fueled by open source software" would even consider muddying the waters by launching proprietary software with the same name. That's confusing, destructive, and disrespectful. Please join me in asking Groupon to change their plans, and in contributing to the GNOME Foundation's defense.

-- Matthew Miller, Fedora Project Leader

GNOME has been one of the hallmarks and foundation for the open source community for over 15 years. We are outraged that Groupon would attempt to insinuate that its proprietary software and products have anything to do with the GNOME community and years of trust and good will that GNOME has built over the years. We stand by GNOME in protecting its trademark and encourage everyone in the open source and free software community to do the same.

-- Andrew Lee, Private Internet Access co-founder and Chief Content Officer Just donated $100 to the GNOME foundation to defend their trademark against Groupon, you should donate too! #trademark #GNOME

More details: https://www.gnome.org/groupon/

This legal defense is not just about protecting GNOME's trademark; it is about asserting to the corporate world that FLOSS trademarks can and will be guarded. Not just by the project in question, but by the community as a whole. As a result, all FLOSS trademarks will be strengthened at once.

-- Lucas Nussbaum, Debian Project Leader

GNOME has been an integral part of the free and open source universe for over a decade and half, and is a vital component of Fedora's desktop operating system. I'm shocked and saddened that a company which describes itself as "fueled by open source software" would even consider muddying the waters by launching proprietary software with the same name. That's confusing, destructive, and disrespectful. Please join me in asking Groupon to change their plans, and in contributing to the GNOME Foundation's defense.

-- Matthew Miller, Fedora Project Leader

GNOME has been one of the hallmarks and foundation for the open source community for over 15 years. We are outraged that Groupon would attempt to insinuate that its proprietary software and products have anything to do with the GNOME community and years of trust and good will that GNOME has built over the years. We stand by GNOME in protecting its trademark and encourage everyone in the open source and free software community to do the same.

-- Andrew Lee, Private Internet Access co-founder and Chief Content Officer