Bummer that you have to do this. A question about this that others may share: on my blog I have links to your books that go to Amazon or Powell's, and if anyone buys one of your books I get a few cents. Is that OK?

If that's a problem, let me know and I'll stop - I'll promote your work for nothing.

Of course, I also link directly to your site for things like the GTD Fast program.

David,
your methods are invaluable when it comes to managing workflow. I really appreciate your work.

Now my question: What if I would like to teach your ideas to my girlfriend? Or to my co-workers / colleagues. Do I need to license it from your company? Or do I need to book a seminar from Davidco, instead of teaching my girlfriend myself? (Now these questions might sound stupid, but after your post I was insecure.) Where is the borderline? -

I run my own business and I'm not into making money with your ideas, but since your work has had a tremendous positive impact on my life, I'd like every family member and co-worker get acquainted with your methods.

-- Greetings from Berlin, Germany,
Ugur

David, similarly to Ugur, I tend to 'evangelise' friends to GTD, and I wonder if this may occasionally verge on teaching them. I've certainly been known to buy the book and present it to some individuals!
I'm also about to join the Amazon referral scheme and, like Dwayne, have links to your book on my site.
But I guess one aspect that never occurred to me until now is that I'm working through "Reading for Anything" and have a weekly blog about this on my business/personal site, in which I quote verbatim from parts of the book. So perhaps this is a potential IP question rather than teaching your methods, but get someone to let me know if this is a problem.

Dwayne, Ugur, Tess,

Your examples are what I mean by "spreading it from a personal standpoint," and what you describe above has my blessing, for sure. I'm really talking about people literally using our image/brand/material to sell directly or promote directly their own businesses. Thanks for checking, though. (Absolutely get all your friends in the world to GTD - makes for a much easier life!)

David

David,
Being a graduate student and not any sort of entrepreneur I ask this more out of curiosity than concern over my own practices. To what degree do you have legal protection over a certain way of keeping oneself organized? Is it more the GTD / davidco trademark preservation you're concerned about? In this day and age of intellectual property controversy this is an interesting topic to me.

PS - I do continue to try to get my friends and colleagues to read the book, and more importantly, to execute its recommendations. :)

Just curious, but I came to your book well after reading people talking about using your book for 'Getting Things Done', and after reading quite a few other organisational books, with that in mind, what exactly constitutes your core brand and business model?

What I mean is, the term itself, Getting Things Done or GTD is fairly non-specific, being as there's been several other titles of the same name. Multiple to do lists, project lists, weekly & daily reviews, tickler files etc are all fairly common, even within the same system, as is stating to do lists in a 'doing' phrase.

Use of the @ symbols etc are kinda distinctive, and playing off your name is obviously a no-no, and something specifically summarising any of your works would be too...

I guess it's like McDonalds, anyone could set up a fast food franchise, and legitimately have similar elements, such as red or yellow, or blue uniforms, or cartoon figures etc, it's a matter of whether there's enough elements in common that it has a *too* similar 'look & feel'. I'm just wondering how you might define that for your system?

Woops, didn't mean to be completely anonymous!

I believe you deserve all the credit for this great title, GTD, and your message is entirely appropriate, David, as I indicated in my blog item this morning.

I would just ask you to be cautious with this. I know I came to GTD from Merlin Mann's 43folders site, and bought your book because of them. I show people the book because of the active community they promote, and the heath and helpfulness of their news groups. I think I bought the book via their link (I don't remember), and I bought other things such as "The Now Habit" from there.

Please offer amnesty to people not competing with you, only doing their own thing.

--Michael

David, I am editor of OrganizedHome.Com. Do you consider it problematic if members at our community discuss the book? I do not promote your method in any way short of including the books in our Amazon module (which is fed through Amazon AWS services).

The discussions in question are member-led, take place on our message boards, and are monitored only for issues like flaming or language. Are these acceptable? My Moderators want to know.

Honestly, David...Aren't you making enough money?

Ah, the lawyers are earning their keep.

It seems that most of the comment posters are taking this too seriously. You only need to worry if:

- You are making money selling products or services that an average person might think are endorsed by David Allen.
- You are using David Allen Co. trademarks to promote your own money-making business?
- You are distributing David Allen Co. materials that are not freely available via David Co. or you are selling those materials even if they are given away by David Allen Co.

From a fair-use perspective, you can write about and discuss GTD-related topics all you want--you just need to attribute the material to David Allen, Co.. If you use David Allen trademarks in a formal way, you need to attribute those as well with the a (TM) symbol. "Getting Things Done" and "GTD" are trademarks. "...getting things done..." is not.

Overall, you just need to make it very clear to anyone that your blog or service is "unofficial" and not endorsed by David Allen Co..

David Allen and Davidco must face a real challenge in capturing a large share of the value of what they have developed and publicized so ably and to the benefit of so many. Copyright isn't much, protecting only "forms of expression", not ideas. Even trademarking "Getting Things Done" is problematic since Edwin C. Bliss published "Getting Things Done: the ABCs of time management" in 1976 and 1995. Trademarking "GTD" and "GtD" might work. Protecting the graphics would be good. I'm not sure that the fellow who posted the precis of "Getting Things Done" is going to do too well, since that would appear to be a derivative work.

Does preventing discussion groups from using "GTD" or "GtD" in their names help or hinder the Davidco business ?

Thanks for all the comments. Believe me, everything anyone has mentioned above (x1000!) has been in our conversations for several years. I do appreciate all the referrals and the word-spreading that folks like 43Folders have done; the issue, as previously mentioned, is when license was taken to imply a direct connection with me and our company that doesn't exist, and/or when no attribution is given for copyrighted or trademarked material. As I said, this is not something I'm particulary fond of having to deal with, but some rather crass instances of this have started to show up... so be it.

David

I wanted to let you know that I have recently uploaded a graph detailling how I went about implementing GTD using the Devonthink software [http://www.flickr.com/photos/81257428@N00/10304266/]. As I have posted in March a number of screen shots of my implementation [http://www.flickr.com/photos/81257428@N00/5711800/]
I have received a number of requests for clarification.

I have therefore clarify those queries by creating a graph on cmap which may be of assistance to readers. I hope David Allen and the David Allen Cie do not fell it violates their copyright. Would that be the case, please let me know as soon as possible and I would remove the picture.

Yes, I can understand your need to maintain quality in the GTD brand. I'm finding your Outlook Add-in very helpful. However, the licence limitation to two computers means that those of us who have three (home PC, workPC & travel laptop) have to pay twice for what is already an expensive product. Microsoft have learned that it is better in the long run to reduce prices and encourage broad usage. Might one pay-off for the new policy to police GTD be to make your own products more accessible?

Since you state that "Getting Things Done" is a trademark, you might want to take a look at / aim at. This group specifically uses the trademark

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Getting_Things_Done/

Hello David,

Please visit http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectHome?ReadForm&Query=OpenNTFGTD and let me know if there is *any* legal or emotional issue with the activities going on here.

I have purchased your books, have tried your Outlook add-in and was frustrated because there was nothing for Lotus Notes. My organisation uses Lotus Notes and there was nothing I could do about it.

Inspite of not being a Lotus Notes programmer, I tinkered below the hood to develop what suits me. I have shared it with others.

I hope I have not made any mistake in this. Please check and let me know.

In fact I was directed here by some postings on the OpenNTF site.

Thanks a ton for all the good work that you have done so far.

-=KoolPal=-

KoolPal, on first look seems like what you're doing is fine, from my standpoint. Just trying to make GTD work with Notes - great project (good luck!) - David

wow! this is fab... all these bloggers devoting websites to your words and methodologies. i just send folks to your website or buy the books and give 'em away as gifts.

Hi David - Great blog! Just realized you had one. Saw this post and it reminded me: Can you contact either me or Greg about the "Taming Time and Technology" series that you recorded together way back in 1998. My dad and I just dusted them off as part of a recent research and archiving project. Hope all is well with you.

- Sean Voisen