LF-horizontal-white

 

Search

    JOIN
    Policies

    Trademark Policy

    Effective: 26 July 2022

    Linux Foundation Europe is established as a Belgian private stichting headquartered in Belgium  ("LF Europe"). LF Europe also hosts open source collaboration projects (each such project, a “Project”).

    This trademark policy governs the use of trademarks owned by LF Europe and used by the  Projects. Some trademarks of LF Europe, such as trademarks that are part of a compliance or conformance program, have additional requirements (such trademarks, “Compliance Marks”).
    Compliance Marks may only be used pursuant to the applicable requirements published by the  Project managing each Compliance Mark.

    For purposes of this document, references to trademarks or marks include all trade and service marks and logos owned by LF Europe.

    Trademarks of LF Europe

    LF Europe has the following registered trademarks:

    • None at this time

    LF Europe has registrations pending or trademarks in use for the following marks, including
    designs:

    • Linux Foundation Europe™

    Logo Marks: In addition, LF Projects has visual logo trademarks in use and you must comply  with any visual guidelines or additional requirements.

    Trademark Usage Guidelines of LF Europe

    Trademarks are used to provide assurance to the community of consistency with respect to the  quality of products or services with which the mark is associated. This policy attempts to strike  the proper balance between two competing interests: 1) the need of LF Europe to ensure that  its trademarks remain reliable indicators of the qualities that they have been created to preserve  and 2) the need of LF Europe to ensure that community members are able to discuss the  projects with which LF Europe is associated and to accurately describe the relationship between  LF Europe and the products and services offered by others.

    A trademark provides the owner with an exclusive right to authorize or control the use of the  mark. Your right to use a mark of LF Europe is provided for in this policy and in the statement of  permitted use, if any, that may accompany the trademark notice displayed on the website
    dedicated to the project. A copyright license, even an open source copyright license, does not  include an implied right or license to use a trademark that may be related to the project developing the licensed software or other materials. Because open source licenses permit
    unrestricted modification of the copyrighted software, and LF Europe has no intention of interfering with that right, your right to use any specific trademark of LF Europe is not  determined by your use of software made available under an open source license. Your right to
    use a mark is conditioned upon conforming to other requirements that are directly related to the qualities that the specific mark has been created to preserve.

    Proper use of LF Europe trademarks by following these trademark usage guidelines protects the value of LF Europe trademarks. Any use of or reference to LF Europe trademarks that is  inconsistent with this trademark policy, or use of marks that are confusingly similar to
    trademarks of LF Europe, is prohibited. All uses of LF Europe trademarks, and all goodwill associated therewith, will inure solely to the benefit of LF Europe. 

    Rules that Apply to Trademarks In General

    There are some basic rules that apply to any use of any trade or service mark that you do not  own, including any mark of LF Europe, without the express permission of the owner.

    • A trademark should never be used as a verb or noun. A trademark should be used only  as an adjective followed by the generic name/noun.
    •  trademark should not be used in the plural or possessive form.
    • A trademark should not be altered or amended in any way. A mark should not be  combined with any other mark, hyphenated, abbreviated or displayed in parts. A  trademark that is depicted as two or more words should not be compressed into one word. A logo should not be displayed with color variations, or with other elements  superimposed on top of the logo.
    • A trademark should not be used as your domain name or as part of your domain name.
    • A trademark should not be used as part of your product name.
    • A trademark should not be incorporated into your company’s logos or designs.
    • A trademark notice should be used on the most prominent and/or first appearance of each mark of LF Europe, and a trademark notice should not be changed. In particular, a ™ should not be changed to an ® in a trademark notice by anyone other than the owner. If you are unsure about whether a mark of LF Europe is registered in a particular country, please contact us for additional guidance as to what trademark symbol you should use.
    There are also some basic rights that everyone has to use any trademark, which are often referred to as “fair use,” and LF Europe does not intend to restrict those rights. You may make fair use of word marks to make true factual statements. But fair use does not permit you to state

    or imply that the owner of a mark produces, endorses, or supports your company, products, or services. Even when making fair use of a trademark, you should acknowledge the owner of the  trademark with a trademark notice, such as the notice displayed on LF Projects project
    websites.

    Rules and Policies Applicable to Marks Owned by LF Europe

    In addition to the generally applicable rules discussed above, there are a few specific rules that  we ask everyone to follow when using trademarks owned by LF Europe.

    • Use the full form of any trademarks (e.g., “Linux Foundation Europe”) in the first  reference in all documents of mass communication, including marketing collateral and  web pages. You may then use any abbreviated or short form references within the same the document where the full form has already been used.
    • Use LF Europe’s trademarks in a form that distinguishes them from the text around  them, such as by capitalization, bold or italic fonts, or with quotation marks. Any use of registered trademarks listed above should include the ® symbol immediately after the first usage (e.g., “Linux Foundation® projects develop open source….”). Any use of  unregistered trademarks listed above should include a TM immediately after the first  usage (e.g., “Linux Foundation Europe™ community seeks to secure….”)
    • Do not use LF Europe trademarks in a manner that would disparage LF Europe or its  projects (e.g., untruthful advertising, false/misleading promotional materials, etc.).
    • Do not use a LF Europe logo on the cover of a book or magazine without written  permission from LF Projects.
    • Do not use LF Europe trademarks more prominently than your own company, product or  service name.
    • Do not use a logo of LF Europe on posters, brochures, signs, websites, or other  marketing materials to promote your events, products or services without written  permission from LF Europe.
    • Do not refer to a product or service as being certified under any of LF Europe’s marks  unless your company has successfully undergone the requisite compliance testing and has explicit authorization to use such terms from LF Europe.
    • Do not attempt to claim or assert any ownership rights in any mark of LF Europe and do  not attempt to register any LF Europe trademark as a trademark, trade name, domain name, or “doing business as” name, alone or (unless specifically licensed) in combination with your own trademarks.

    LF Europe marks have been created and their use is expressly permitted for a specific purpose. Do not use logos or names of LF Europe in any commercial or marketing context other than as expressly permitted in this policy unless you have obtained explicit written permission from LF  Europe to do so. LF Europe permits the use of its trademarks for private and personal use to make t-shirts, stickers, and caps for yourself and your friends (meaning people from whom you don’t receive anything of value in return) in a manner that is consistent with the preservation of  the goodwill and value of the mark.

    You are also allowed to use a trademark or logo of LF Europe as a link to the home page of the applicable project or to a web page on LF Europe web site that is relevant to the reference so long as the link is in a manner that is consistent with the preservation of the goodwill and value  of the mark. The link and all other usage of a logo of LF Europe shall be done using the official  versions of LF Europe logos obtained from LF Europe or its Projects.

    Certain marks of LF Europe have been created to enable you to communicate compatibility or  interoperability of software or products. In addition to the requirement that any use of a mark to  make an assertion of compatibility must, of course, be accurate, the use of these marks must  avoid confusion regarding LF Europe’s association with the product. The use of the mark  cannot imply that LF Europe or its projects are sponsoring or endorsing the product. The  following are examples of proper and improper usage of these trademarks of LF Europe:

    • Correct: <your product name> for <LF Europe mark>
    • Correct: <your product/company name> plug-in for <LF Europe mark>
    • Correct: <your product name> compatible with <LF Europe mark>
    • Correct: <your product name> for use with <LF Europe mark>
    • Correct: Quick Start for <LF Europe mark> by <your company name>
    • Incorrect: <LF Europe mark> <your product name>
    • Incorrect: <LF Europe mark> by <your company name>
    • Incorrect: <LF Europe mark> – <your product name>
    • Incorrect: <your product/company name> – <LF Europe mark>
    • Incorrect: <LF Europe mark> Quick Start by <your company name>

    Questions, Comments, Concerns

    We look to our community to help us retain the value of LF Europe’s trade and service marks. If  you have questions with respect to these guidelines or to report concerns regarding the use or  misuse of a trademark of LF Europe, or to obtain written permission for a proposed use of LF Europe trademarks, contact: trademarks@linuxfoundation.eu

    Disclaimer

    LF Europe does not make any express or implied warranties, including but not limited to the  warranties of non-infringement of any third party intellectual property rights. LF Europe does not warrant that any pending trademark applications for trademarks of LF Projects will result in any  granted trademark protection. LF Europe shall not be liable for any claims relating to user’s  activities falling within the scope of the permission and user hereby agrees to indemnify, defend and hold LF Europe and its contributors harmless against any such claims.
    Updates  LF Europe may release new versions of LF Europe trademark policy or statements of permitted use of LF Europe marks without notice.

    Credits

    This work was inspired by the Mozilla Foundation Trademark Policy and the GNOME Trademark Licensing. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (“CC BY  4.0”, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).


    Stay Connected with the Linux Foundation