Trademark Policy

This Policy covers the following word trademarks and service marks (the “Word Marks”):

In general, except for the SCALABITY PROTOCOLS mark, we prefer to use these Word Marks combined with the nouns “library”, “API”, “distribution”, “project”, “implementation”. For the SCALABILITY PROTOCOLS Mark, the preferred nouns are “specifications”, “documents”, “RFC”, and “implementation”.

This Policy also covers our logos (the “Logos”):

Finally this Policy covers the unique visual styling of our website and packaging (the “Trade Dress”).

This Policy encompasses all trademarks and service marks, whether Word Marks, Logos or Trade Dress, which are collectively referred to as the “Marks”.

Some Marks may not be registered, but registration does not equal ownership of trademarks. This Policy covers our Marks whether they are registered or not.

The following trademarks are ones that are reserved exclusively to our use and are not covered by the Policy:

(The use of “NN” by itself to refer to nanomsg is deprecated, and possibly confusing with an application foreading Usenet postings, so we would prefer if nobody used it to refer to any of our work.)

Contact us as described in Where to get further information below if you have questions or want to ask permission to use any of these excluded trademarks.

When you redistribute an unmodified copy of our software, you are not changing the quality or nature of it. Therefore, you may retain the Word Marks and the Logos we have placed on the software to identify your redistribution — whether that redistribution is made by optical media, memory stick or download of unmodified source and executable code. This kind of use only applied if you are redistributing an official distribution from this Project that has not been changed in any way.

You may use the Word Marks, but not the Logos, to truthfully describe the origin of the software that you are providing, that is, that the code you are distributing is a modification of our software. You may say, for example, that "this software is derived from the source code for NANOMSG software."

Of course, you can place your own trademarks or logos on versions of the software to which you have made substantive modifications, because by modifying the software you have become the origin of that exact version. In that case, you should not use our Logos. Our source code version therefore does not contain our Logo data files.

You may use the Word Marks, but not the Logos, to truthfully describe the relationship between your software and ours. Our Mark should be used after a verb or preposition that describes the relationship between your software and ours. So you may say, for example, "Bob’s software for the NANOMSG platform" but may not say "Bob’s NANOMSG software." Some other examples that may work for you are:

This section discusses the use of our Marks for software such an application themes, skins and personas. The use of our Marks on websites is discussed below.

You may use the Word Marks and the Logos in themes, personas, or skins for applications to show your support for the Project, provided that the use is non-commercial and the use is clearly decorative, as contrasted with a use that appears to be the branding for a website or application.

You may use the Word Marks and Logos, but not the Trade Dress, on your webpage to show your support for the Project as long as:

You can use the Word Marks in book and article titles, and the Logo in illustrations within the document, as long as the use does not suggest that we have published, endorse, or agree with your work.

You may use the Word Marks and Logos to promote the software and Project at events.

You can use the Word Marks as part of your user group name provided that:

Note that the Universal considerations for all uses, above, still apply, specifically, that you may not use or register the Marks as part of your own trademark, service mark, domain name, company name, trade name, product name or service name.

"Promotional goods" are non-software goods that use the Marks and that are intended to advertise the Project, promote the Project, or show membership in the Project community.

You may make promotional goods for free giveaway at open source conferences and events using the Word Marks and Logos.

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. "Trade dress" or "get up" refers to the look and feel of the packaging, which in this context can include the layout, colors, images, and design choices in a web page. Throughout this Policy, the terms "trademark" and "mark" refer to both trademarks, service marks and trade dress.

However, the use of a word is "not as a trademark" when it is used functionally as part of the software program, for example, in a file, folder, directory, or path name. Use in this way is not a trademark infringement.

There is trademark infringement if your use of a trademark has created a "likelihood of confusion." This means using a trademark in a way that will likely confuse or deceive the relevant consuming public about the source of a product or service using the mark in question. For example, if the "Foo" software extension removes all double spaces after periods, but someone else later creates "Foo" software that adds a third space after periods, consumers would be confused between the two and the newcomer will likely be a trademark infringer. As another example, if a company makes "Foobar" software and a third party offers training called "Foobar Certification," a person is likely to believe, wrongly, that the certification is being offered by the makers of Foobar software. The third party has likely misled consumers about the source of its training and is a trademark infringer.

So-called "nominative use" (or "nominative fair use"), which is the name of the doctrine under U.S. trademark law, allows the use of another’s trademark where it is necessary for understanding. Other countries' trademark laws also have similar provisions. For example, a car repair shop that specializes in a particular brand of automobile, VW for example, must be allowed to say that they repair VW cars. Here is what you should consider when deciding whether your use of a trademark is a nominative fair use:

With our "Foobar Certification" example above, the person offering the certification would be allowed to say, under the nominative fair use doctrine, that she is offering "Maude’s Certification for Foobar software."

It is almost never the case that using a Logo will be a nominative fair use since it will be a rare case where the logo is needed for strictly informational purposes.

Either initial capital letters may be used, or all capital letters may be used.

Do not appreviate, hyphenate, or combine with any other word or words.

You can see the nouns we prefer under Our trademarks.

Trademarks are products or services, never actions.

Instead, the following noun should be used in possessive form or the sentence reworded so there is no possessive.

This means you may not add decorative elements, change the colors, change the proportions, distort it, add elements, or combine it with other logos.

However, when the context requires the use of black-and-white graphics and the logo is color, you may reproduce the logo in a manner that produces a black-and-white image.