Legal team earns accolade for community-first trademark governance in open source
SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2025 -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced it has been named Not-For-Profit and Education Team of the Year at the 2025 World Trademark Review (WTR) Industry Awards. This recognition highlights the Linux Foundation's essential role in protecting the trust, security, and long-term viability of open source software used around the world.
Open source software has become the foundation of global digital infrastructure. From operating systems to AI applications, the world runs on open source. As such, the threat of trademark misuse poses a growing risk to the security and sustainability of these critical technologies. The Linux Foundation plays a critical role in protecting more than 1,000 open source projects and communities worldwide. The Foundation's legal team works with projects to identify and mitigate risk, providing brand governance strategies that ensure the credibility and resilience of the open source ecosystem. These actions are essential to the widespread adoption and security of the software supply chain.
"We're honored to be recognized by WTR for our ongoing commitment to responsible legal stewardship in open source," said Daniel Scales, Chief Brand Counsel at the Linux Foundation. "Open source adoption is growing, and global organizations are seeing higher business value from open source year after year, making our legal team's role in safeguarding the identity and integrity of open source projects more important than ever."
The WTR Industry Awards spotlight the world's leading in-house trademark teams and individuals. The Linux Foundation was nominated alongside top nonprofits, including American Red Cross, American Retirement Association, Rotary International and International Association of Better Business Bureaus.
For more on the Linux Foundation's effort to defend open source, check out our blog. To learn more about the Linux Foundation, please visit: www.linuxfoundation.org.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, LF Decentralized Trust, Node.js, ONAP, OpenChain, OpenSSF, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, Zephyr, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
For a list of trademarks of the Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
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