Debian is registered trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. and managed by the Debian project.
The trademark was registered
the 21st of December of 1999 but has been in use since August 1993. It is
registered under the Nice Class 009: Computer Utility and Operating
System Software
.
The current policy was announced by Bruce Perens, Debian Project Leader, in 1998:
We allow all businesses to make reasonable use of the
Debian
trademark.
For example, if you make a CD of our Debian GNU/Linux distribution, you can
call that product Debian
. If you want to use the name in some other way, you
should ask us first.
To be fair to all businesses, we insist that no business use the name
Debian
in the name of the business, or a domain name of the business.
As announced by Martin Michlmayr, Debian Project Leader, in 2003 (also available as SPI resolution 2003-06-03-bmh.1), a Trademark Committee was started to review SPI's trademark policy. This committee can be contacted at spi-trademark@lists.spi-inc.org.
Currently there are two drafts for the trademark policy, one drafted by Benjamin Mako Hill and a different one drafted by Branden Robinson.
A similar trademark has been registered by some other associations related to the Debian Project over the world, this includes debian JP in Japan (registered in 2002), as well as Stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs in Norway, Debian Spain Association in Spain (registered in 2007) and Vincent Renardias in France.
The following organistions have been licensed to use the Debian trademark through a License Agreement:
Les logiciels du soleil, per SPI's resolution 1999-08-06.mgs.