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Trademark Policy

Effective: January 2, 2024

Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC (“JDF Projects”) is a Delaware series limited liability company that hosts projects that have been established as series of JDF Projects (each such project, a “Project”).

This trademark policy governs the use of trademarks owned by JDF Projects and used by the Projects under license.  Some trademarks of JDF Projects, 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 JDF Projects for each such Compliance Mark.

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

Trademarks of JDF Projects

JDF Projects has the following registered trademarks:

  • ToIP®


JDF Projects has registrations pending or trademarks in use for the following marks, including designs:

  • 3MF Consortium™
  • Alliance for Open Media™
  • AOUSD™
  • Alliance for OpenUSD™
  • ADA™
  • App Defense Alliance™
  • C2PA™
  • Coalition for Content Provenance and Authority™
  • DIF™
  • FOCUS™
  • Green Software Foundation™
  • Internet of Learning Consortium™
  • Margo™
  • Overture Maps Foundation™
  • Qir Alliance™
  • SPIF™
  • SSI Alliance™
  • TRUST Over IP FOUNDATION™
  • Ultra Ethernet Consortium™
  • UXL Foundation™
  • Uptane™

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

Trademark Usage Guidelines of JDF Projects

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 JDF Projects to ensure that its trademarks remain reliable indicators of the qualities that they have been created to preserve and 2) the need of JDF Projects to ensure that community members are able to discuss the projects with which JDF Projects is associated and to accurately describe the relationship between JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects has no intention of interfering with that right, your right to use any specific trademark of JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects trademarks by following these trademark usage guidelines protects the value of JDF Projects trademarks.  Any use of or reference to JDF Projects trademarks that is inconsistent with this trademark policy, or use of marks that are confusingly similar to trademarks of JDF Projects, is prohibited.  All uses of JDF Projects trademarks, and all goodwill associated therewith, will inure solely to the benefit of JDF Projects.

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 JDF Projects, 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.
  • A 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 JDF Projects, 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 JDF Projects is registered in your 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 JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects project websites.

Rules and Policies Applicable to Marks Owned by JDF Projects

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 JDF Projects.

  • Use the full form of any trademarks (e.g., “JDF Projects”) 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 JDF Projects’ 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., “JDF Projects® projects develop open source….”). Any use of unregistered trademarks listed above should include a TM immediately after the first usage (e.g., “The Overture Maps Foundation™ community develops….”)
  • Do not use JDF Projects trademarks in a manner that would disparage JDF Projects or its projects (e.g., untruthful advertising, false/misleading promotional materials, etc.).
  • Do not use a JDF Projects logo on the cover of a book or magazine without written permission from JDF Projects.
  • Do not use JDF Projects trademarks more prominently than your own company, product or service name.
  • Do not use a logo of JDF Projects on posters, brochures, signs, websites, or other marketing materials to promote your events, products or services without written permission from JDF Projects.
  • Do not refer to a product or service as being certified under any of JDF Projects’ marks unless your company has successfully undergone the requisite compliance testing and has explicit authorization to use such terms from JDF Projects.
  • Do not attempt to claim or assert any ownership rights in any mark of JDF Projects and do not attempt to register any JDF Projects trademark as a trademark, trade name, domain name, or “doing business as” name, alone or (unless specifically licensed) in combination with your own trademarks.

JDF Projects marks have been created and their use is expressly permitted for a specific purpose.  Do not use logos or names of JDF Projects in any commercial or marketing context other than as expressly permitted in this policy unless you have obtained explicit written permission from JDF Projects to do so.  JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects as a link to the home page of the applicable project or to a web page on JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects shall be done using the official versions of JDF Projects logos obtained from JDF Projects or its projects.

Certain marks of JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects’ association with the product.  The use of the mark cannot imply that JDF Projects or its projects are sponsoring or endorsing the product.  The following are examples of proper and improper usage of these trademarks of JDF Projects:

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

Questions, Comments, Concerns

We look to our community to help us retain the value of JDF Projects’ 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 JDF Projects, or to obtain written permission for a proposed use of JDF Projects trademarks, contact: trademarks@jointdevelopment.org

Disclaimer

JDF Projects 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.  JDF Projects does not warrant that any pending trademark applications for trademarks of JDF Projects will result in any granted trademark protection.  JDF Projects 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 JDF Projects and its contributors harmless against any such claims.

Updates

JDF Projects may release new versions of JDF Projects trademark policy or statements of permitted use of JDF Projects marks without notice.

This work is 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).

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