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Trademark Policy

Trademark Guidelines

This trademark policy was prepared to help you understand how to use the bitdrift trademarks, service marks and logos with bitdrift’s Capture SDK software.

While some of our software is available under a source-available software license, that copyright license does not include a license to use our trademark, and this Policy is intended to explain how to use our marks consistent with background law and community expectation.

This Policy covers:

  1. Our word trademarks and service marks: bitdrift and any others listed at bitdrift.io

  2. Our logos: The bitdrift logo at the top of this policy and any others listed at bitdrift.io

This policy encompasses all trademarks and service marks, whether they are registered or not.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

Whenever you use one of our marks, you must always do so in a way that does not mislead anyone about what they are getting and from whom. For example, you cannot say you are distributing the bitdrift software when you’re distributing a modified version of it, because recipients may not understand the differences between your modified versions and our own.

You also cannot use our logo on your website in a way that suggests that your website is an official website or that we endorse your website.

You can, though, say you like the bitdrift software, that you participate in the bitdrift community, that you are providing an unmodified version of the bitdrift software.

You may not use or register our marks, or variations of them as part of your own trademark, service mark, domain name, company name, trade name, product name or service name.

Trademark law does not allow your use of names or trademarks that are too similar to ours. You therefore may not use an obvious variation of any of our marks or any phonetic equivalent, foreign language equivalent, takeoff, or abbreviation for a similar or compatible product or service. We would consider the following too similar to one of our Marks:

  • Mybitdrift
  • bitdriftFooBar

ACCEPTABLE USES

Unmodified code

When you redistribute an unmodified copy of our software -- the exact form in which we make it available -- you must retain the marks we have placed on the software to identify your redistribution.

Modified code

If you distribute a modified version of our software, you must remove all of our logos from it. To assist you with this, we have removed our logos from our source trees, and include them only in our binaries. You may use our word marks, but not our logos, to truthfully describe the origin of the software that you are providing. For example, if the code you are distributing is a modification of our software, you may say, “This software is derived from the source code for bitdrift software.”

Statements about compatibility

You may use the word marks, but not the logos, to truthfully describe the relationship between your software and ours. Any other use may imply that we have certified or approved your software. If you wish to use our logos, please contact us to discuss license terms.

Naming Compatible Products

If you wish to describe your product with reference to the bitdrift software, here are the conditions under which you may do so. You may call your software XYZ (where XYZ is your product name) for bitdrift only if:

  • All versions of the bitdrift software you deliver with your product are the exact binaries provided by us.
  • You use the following legend in marketing materials or product descriptions: “bitdrift is a trademark of bitdrift. [add link to bitdrift]”

User groups

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

  • The main focus of the group is our software

  • The group does not make a profit

  • Any charge to attend meetings are to cover the cost of the venue, food and drink only

You are not authorized to conduct a conference using our marks.

No Domain Names

You must not register any domain that includes our word marks or any variant or combination of them.

HOW TO DISPLAY OUR MARKS

When you have the right to use our mark, here is how to display it.

Trademark marking and legends

The first or most prominent mention of a mark on a webpage, document, or documentation should be accompanied by a symbol indicating whether the mark is a registered trademark (“®”) or an unregistered trademark (“™”). If you don’t know which applies, contact us.

Place the following notice at the foot of the page where you have used the mark: “bitdrift is a trademark of [bitdrift].”

Use of trademarks in text

Always use trademarks in their exact form with the correct spelling, neither abbreviated, hyphenated, or combined with any other word or words.

Unacceptable: bitdrift-DB

Don’t pluralize a trademark.

Unacceptable: I have seventeen bitdrifts running in my lab.

Always use a trademark as an adjective modifying a noun.

Unacceptable: This is a bitdrift. Acceptable: This is a bitdrift software application.

Use of Logos

You may not change any logo except to scale it. 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.

These guidelines are based on the Model Trademark Guidelines, available at http://www.modeltrademarkguidelines.org., used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US.