I just found this shop website, which seems to be fake or a placeholder
osm dot shop
It links to a Github organization but that is fake too, it has no repos, not to mention code of the website.
https://github dot com/osmshop
What can be done here? Can the foundation buy that domain and setup a merch shop there? Or a link to the wiki page?
Good catch, I’m not a lawyer so I do not know what action to take. I am sure there can be something.
There are a bunch of links on the relevant OSMF page (including contact addresses) that may help. They’ll know what action would be appropriate here.
The merchandise just says “OSM.shop”. That isn’t a trademark of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, and nor is “OSM” - that can equally apply to Online Soccer Manager or the Orange Survival Militia or Orangutans Supporting Musk. The OSMF trademark policy asserts ownership of “the abbreviations when used in the OpenStreetMap or geodata context”, which these don’t appear to be.
In other words, nothing to see here.
Well it calls itself a “free software shop” and uses the very common abbreviation.
It is likely not enough to ban them from using that domain.
If you would at least browse more first, “About” claims to be “Open Source Merchandise”. That’s labeled on Twitter.
“OS” can stand for Ordnance Survey here, or Operating System. There was another random one by Microsoft. Open Service Mesh - Wikipedia
It’s entirely possible someone made this website for learning purpose. For any seriousness, the “OSM.shop LLC” needs to be looked up, as far as whether the company can be registered easily. I got blocked by the business list showing it.
