Whilst GNOME has not fully disclosed the information, which has been disgust for months at Board Meetings, I would stand by the evil comment. Groupon, the massive for profit organisation, made a conscious decision ("Not only did Groupon refuse ...")to basically say FU to GNOME. They then used their position as a major organisation to try and coerce them into an unacceptable situation("alternative branding options") which included filling more trademark applications.
I would, and do, call them bullies and bullies are evil.
I see your point, though I would still reserve the word for stuff that is at least an order of magnitude more troubling. Including this comment, I said so three times in different variations, and the fact that we're arguing over this word still means we probably can't arrive at a common definition of what constitutes "1.0 units of evil" which we all agree on.
Barring this common definition, I'd rather talk about the facts of what happened, or even useful speculation and opinions about it, than to discuss labels that have different meanings for every single person reading this.
It's getting a bit unproductive. I'm sorry to have entered this discussion now because it makes me sound like I'm defending behavior that I don't actually support.
I would, and do, call them bullies and bullies are evil.