TrademarkPolicy

Trademark Policy

The objective of the Handhelds.org, Inc.’s (Handhelds.org) trademark policy is to encourage widespread use of the Handhelds.org trademarks by the Handhelds.org community while controlling that use in order to avoid confusion on the part of Handhelds.org users and the general public, to maintain the value of the image and reputation of the trademarks and to protect them from inappropriate or unauthorized use.

The sections below describe what is allowed, what isn't allowed, and cases in which you should ask permission. If you have any doubt, please contact us at webmaster@handhelds.org.

The Trademarks

Handhelds.org, Inc. owns a number of trademarks and these include but are not limited to BootBlaster, BootBlaster3900, bootldr, Familiar, GPE, Handhelds.org, Intimate, ipg, iPKG, ipkgfind, ipkg-utils, MailSentry, and Opie. Some trademarks are registered in both word and logo form. This policy encompasses all marks, in word and logo form, collectively referred to as “Trademarks”.

Permitted Use

Certain usages of the Trademarks are fine and no specific permission from us is needed.

Community Advocacy. Handhelds.org is built by, and largely for, its community. We share access to the Trademarks with the entire community for the purposes of discussion, development and advocacy. We recognize that most of the open source discussion and development areas are for non-commercial purposes and will allow the use of the trademarks in this context, provided:

the Trademark is used in a manner consistent with the Usage Guidelines below
there is no commercial intent behind the use
there is no suggestion (through words or appearance) that your project is approved, sponsored, or affiliated with Handhelds.org or its related projects unless it actually has been approved by and is accountable to the Handhelds.org.

Derived works. The ability to customize software to meet your specific needs is one of the great strengths of free software in general. While we encourage customization and derivation of software, we must balance that freedom with the integrity of the Trademarks along with quality, which they represent. To help reach that balance, we have established the following guidelines and definitions.

Derived works.

Building on Handhelds.org Tradenames or for Handhelds.org. If you are producing new software, which is intended for use with or on Handhelds.org, you may use the trademark in a way, which indicates the intent of your product. For example, if you are developing a system management tool for Handhelds.org, acceptable project titles would be "System Management for Handhelds.org" or "Handhelds.org Based Systems Management". We would strongly discourage, and likely would consider to be problematic, a name such as Handhelds.orgMan, Handhelds.org Management, etc. Furthermore, you may not use the Trademarks in a way which implies an endorsement where that doesn't exist, or which attempts to unfairly or confusingly capitalize on the goodwill or brand of the project.

Commentary and parody. The Handhelds.org Trademarks are designed to cover use of a mark to imply origin or endorsement by the project. When a user downloads something with a Handhelds.org Trademarks, they should know it comes from the Handhelds.org project. This helps Handhelds.org build a reputation that will not be damaged by confusion around what is, and isn't, a Handhelds.org project. Using the trademarks in your discussion, commentary, criticism or parody, in ways that unequivocally do not imply endorsement, is permissible. Anyone is free to write articles, create websites, blog about, or talk about Handhelds.org Tradenames -- as long as it's clear to everyone -- including people completely unfamiliar with Handhelds.org -- that they are simply referring to Handhelds.org and in no way speaking for Handhelds.org, Inc. or Handhelds.org’s projects.

We reserve the right to review all usage within the open source community, and to object to any usage that appears to overstep the bounds of discussion and good-faith non-commercial development. In any event, once a project has left the open source project phase or otherwise become a commercial project, this policy does not authorize any use of the Trademarks in connection to that project.

Restricted use that requires a trademark license

Permission from us is necessary to use any of the Trademarks under any circumstances other than those specifically permitted above. These include:

Any commercial use
Use on or in relation to a software product that includes or is built on top of a product supplied by us, if there is any commercial intent associated with that product.
Use in a domain name or URL.
Use for merchandising purposes, e.g. on t-shirts and the like.
Use of a Trademark in relation to computer hardware or software.
Services relating to any of the above.

If you wish to have permission for any of the uses above or for any other use, which is not specifically referred to in this policy, please email us at webmaster AT handhelds.org DOT com and we'll let you know as soon as possible if your proposed use is permissible. Note that due to the volume of mail we receive, it may take several weeks to process your request. Permission may only be granted subject to certain conditions and these may include the requirement that you enter into an agreement with us to maintain the quality of the product and/or service, which you intend to supply at a prescribed level.

While there may be exceptions, it is very unlikely that we will approve Trademark use in the following cases:

Use of a Trademark in a company name.
Use of a Trademark in a domain name, which has a commercial intent. The commercial intent can range from promotion of a company or product, to collecting revenue generated by advertising.
The calling of any software or product by any Handhelds.org Trademarks (or another related Trademark), unless that software or product is an substantially unmodified Handhelds.org product, or properly labeled as a "Remix" as described above.
Use in combination with any other marks or logos. This include use of a Trademark in a manner that creates a "combined mark," or use that integrates other wording with the Trademark in a way that the public may think of the use as a new mark (for example Club Handhelds.org or Handhelds.org Books, or in a way that by use of special fonts or presentation with nearby words or images conveys an impression that the two are tied in some way).
Use in combination with any product or service, which is presented as being Certified or Official or formally associated with Handhelds.org or its products or services.
Use in a way which implies an endorsement where that doesn't exist, or which attempts to unfairly or confusingly capitalize on the goodwill or brand of the project.
Use of a Trademark in a manner that disparages Handhelds.org or its products and is not clearly third-party parody.
On or in relation to a software product which constitutes a substantially modified version of a product supplied by the Handhelds.org project, that is to say with material changes to the code, or services relating to such a product.
In a title or metatag of a web page whose sole intention or result is to influence search engine rankings or result listings, rather than for discussion, development or advocacy of the Trademarks.

Logo Usage Guidelines

Our logos are presented in multiple colors and it is important that their visual integrity be maintained. It is therefore preferable that the logos only be used in their standard form but if you should feel the need to alter them in any way you should keep the following guidelines in mind. It should also be borne in mind that the more you wish to vary our logos from their standard form the smaller is the chance that we will be able to approve your proposed use.

If presented in multiple colors, the logo should only use the “official” logo colors.
You may use transparency and gradient/depth tools but should retain the “official” colors.
A monotone version may be acceptable in certain situations, if the use requires it (e.g. desktop backgrounds).
Any scaling must retain the original proportions of the logo.

This policy may be changed from time to time by Handhelds.org, Inc.

This draft trademark policy is itself published under the CC-BY-SA license, you are welcome to base your own project trademark policies off it, just let others use your changes and give credit to the Ubuntu project as the original source! Derived from Ubuntu with permission.

Version 1.0 – May 23, 2007

Handhelds.org - Open source for handheld devices