Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Why the LilyPad Arduino Has “Arduino” in Its Name
The fact that the LilyPad carries the Arduino brand name is a very important point to note.
The name Arduino is a trademark held by the Arduino company. Leah Buechley made an
agreement with the Arduino company to license its Arduino trademark for a fee. This ar-
rangement should
not
be confused with Leah giving the Arduino team attribution for their
original board. Arduino has tried to make an important distinction in its trademark over the
years. Although it is an open source project, the logo and company name are trademarked,
much as any other company in the open source hardware space (and even in open source
software, for that matter) can obtain a trademark for its products. We use trademarks be-
cause trademarks protect consumers and say something about the quality of the brand they
are buying, rather than to protect the intellectual property of the hardware. Unless you ob-
tain a license from Arduino, as Leah did to enable her project to be called a LilyPad Ar-
duino, you cannot use the word “Arduino” in the name of your derivative as a way to give
stand correct attribution of Arduino derivatives by attributing Arduino in your README
file or your project description.
Giving Correct Attribution
The Open Source Hardware Definition states the following about attribution:
The license may require derived documents, and copyright notices associated
with devices, to provide attribution to the licensors when distributing design
files, manufactured products, and/or derivatives thereof. The license may re-
quire that this information be accessible to the end-user using the device nor-
mally, but shall not specify a specific format of display. The license may require
derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original
design.
When creating your derivative, you will want to give credit to the original design
without infringing on the trademark of one of original creation. As Michael Weinberg re-
request that anyone who builds upon the work contribute back to the commons; rather, it
creates a legal requirement.” This goes for attribution provisions as well. Due to the
murky nature of licensing hardware, we tend to read the source files (which can be li-
censed cleanly with copyright or a copyright alternative) to understand the intention to list
attribution or share it alike with the same license.
