This document, the "Policy," outlines the Ferrocene project's (the "Project") policy for the use of our trademarks. While our software is available under a free and open source software license, the copyright license does not include any right, express or implied, to use our trademarks. These guidelines are where we describe how you may use our trademarks.
The role of trademarks is to provide assurance about the quality of the products or services with which the trademark is associated. But because an open source license allows you unrestricted modification of the copyrighted software, we cannot be sure that your modifications to the software are ones that will not be misleading if distributed under the same name. Instead, this Policy describes the circumstances under which you may use our trademarks to accurately describe your use of the Project software.
In this Policy we are not trying to limit the lawful use of our trademarks, but rather describe for you what we consider the parameters of lawful use to be. Trademark law can be ambiguous, so we hope to provide enough clarity for you to understand whether we will consider your use non-infringing.
The sections that follow describe what trademarks are covered by this Policy, as well as uses of the trademarks that are allowed without additional permission from us. If you want to use our trademarks in ways that are not described in this Policy, please see "Where to get further information" below for contact information. Any use that does not comply with this Policy or for which we have not separately provided written permission is not a use that we have approved, so you must decide for yourself whether the use is lawful.
We want to encourage and facilitate the use of our software by the community, but do so in a way that still ensures that the trademarks are meaningful as a source and quality indicator for the software and the associated goods and services. This Policy therefore tries to strike the proper balance between: 1) our need to ensure that our trademarks remain reliable indicators of the qualities and security properties that they are meant to preserve and 2) your ability to fully exercise the rights granted in the open source license.
This Policy covers:
Our word trademarks and service marks (the "Marks"):
| Mark | Common descriptive name for the goods or services |
|---|---|
| Ferrocene | tooling for the Rust programming language for deployment in safety-related and critical environments |
| Ferrocene Platform | any services around the Ferrocene products |
| Ferrocene Project | the software project producing Ferrocene with all of its members and contributors |
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:
Usage of name and logo is subject to further conditions such as project contribution or verification. 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.
Whenever you use one of the Marks, you must always do so in a way that does not mislead anyone, either directly or by omission, about exactly what they are getting and from whom. The law reflects this requirement in two major ways described in more detail below: it prohibits creating a "likelihood of confusion" but allows for "nominative use." For example, you cannot say you are distributing the Ferrocene software when you're distributing a modified version of it, because people would be confused when they are not getting the same features and functionality they would get if they downloaded the software directly from us. 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 Ferrocene software, that you participate in the Ferrocene community, that you are providing the binary of the Ferrocene software obtained from the Project, or that you wrote a book describing how to use Ferrocene.
This fundamental requirement, that it is always clear to people what they are getting and from whom, is reflected throughout this Policy. It should also serve as your guide if you are not sure about how you are using the Marks.
In addition:
You may not use the Marks in association with the use or distribution of software if you are also not in compliance with the copyright license for the software.
You may not use or register, in whole or in part, the Marks 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:
- Ferrocen, Ferrecene, Forrecen, etc.
- [any logo similar to our own]
You agree that you will not acquire any rights in the Marks and that any goodwill generated by your use of the Marks inures solely to our benefit.
See Universal considerations for all uses above, which also apply.
When you redistribute an unmodified copy of our software, you are not changing the quality or nature of it. Therefore, you may retain any of our Marks, as well as any logos or other indicia of source we have included in the software, whether that redistribution is made by optical media, memory stick or download of unmodified source and executable code. This kind of use only applies if you are redistributing an official distribution from this Project that has not been changed in any way.
This only applies to binaries, not to associated documents, such as the safety manual and others and in particular signatures provided for those.
You may use the Marks 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 yourself, your software and ours. So you may say, for example, "Terry’s plugin for Ferrocene software" but may not say "Terry's Ferrocene software." Some other examples that may work for you are:
- [Your software] works with Ferrocene
- [Your software] uses Ferrocene
- [Your software] is compatible with Ferrocene
- [Your software] is for use with Ferrocene
- [Your software] for Ferrocene
- [My company] contributes to Ferrocene
- I contribute to Ferrocene
If your project is open source and its tests, requirements documents etc. refer to the Ferrocene documentation, usage in public test automation is non-infringing. We appreciate a shoutout in the README and short info to us.
We understand that you will need to modify, build, install, and test the software and its documentation to see whether the software will be suitable for your needs, develop new functionality, and integrate properly into your systems, and we want you to do that quickly and easily. Therefore, you may build an executable version from source code of our software for the purpose of testing the integration of the software into your systems, including modifying it, and you do not have to remove the Marks from your testing executable. This permission includes providing copies of the source code or testing executable to independent contractors that you have hired to perform this function on your behalf. However, you cannot include the Marks in any version that you build from source that you will be using beyond development and testing the software itself, including for any production purposes.
We will likely consider using the Marks for an executable form of the software built from our source code to be an infringement of our Marks. We cannot assure that the software meets our standards of quality if we did not build it.
We will likely consider using the Marks for a generated form of our documents infringement of our Marks. We cannot assure that the documentation meets our standards of quality if we did not build it.
We will likely consider using the Marks for a software distribution that combines our software with any other software program an infringement of our Marks. We would consider your software "combined" with ours if you create a single executable for both software programs, as well as if, by installing our software, it automatically installs yours. We would not consider your software "combined" with ours if it is on the same media but requires separate, independent action to install it.
See Universal considerations for all uses, above, which also apply.
You can use the Marks in book and article titles as long as the use does not suggest that we have published, endorse, or agree with your work.
You can use the Word Marks as part of your user group name provided that:
- The main focus of the group is the software;
- Any software or services the group provides are without cost;
- The group does not make a profit;
- Any charge to attend meetings are to cover the cost of the venue, food, drink only, plus a reasonable surcharge to ensure the longevity of the group;
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.
We will likely consider using the Marks as part of a domain name or subdomain an infringement of our Marks.
We would likely consider using the Marks on promotional goods an infringement of our Marks.
The first or most prominent mention of a Mark on a webpage, document, packaging, or documentation should be accompanied by a symbol indicating whether the mark is a registered trademark (®) or an unregistered trademark (™). See our Trademark List for the correct symbol to use.
Also, if you are using our Marks in a way described in the sections "Uses for which we are granting a license," please put following notice at the foot of the page where you have used the Mark (or, if in a book, on the credits page), on any packaging or labeling, and on advertising or marketing materials: "Ferrocene is trademark of Critical Section GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries. Used with permission from Critical Section GmbH"
If you are aware of any confusing use or misuse of the Marks in any way, we would appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Please contact us as described below so that we can investigate it further.
If you have any questions about this Policy, would like to speak with us about the use of our Marks in ways not described in the Policy, or see any abuse of our Marks, please email [email protected].
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 “referential use,” "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:
- Whether you can identify the product or service in question without using the trademark;
- Whether you are avoiding a likelihood of confusion in the way that you have used the trademark; and
- Whether you have used only as much as is necessary to identify the product or service.
With our "Foobar Certification" example above, the person offering the certification would be allowed to say, under the nominative fair use doctrine, that they are offering "Taylor'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.
These rules hold true for all trademarks, not just ours, so you should follow them for our Marks as well as anyone else's.
Users of the Ferrocene trademark must follow the Code of Conduct adoped by the Ferrocene project.
Always distinguish trademarks from surrounding text with at least initial capital letters or in all capital letters.
- Unacceptable: ferrocene
- Acceptable: Ferrocene, FERROCENE
Always use trademarks in their exact form with the correct spelling, neither abbreviated, hyphenated, or combined with any other word or words.
- Unacceptable: Ferrocenes chemical formula, Ferr
- Acceptable: Ferrocene
Don't pluralize a trademark.
- Unacceptable: I have seventeen Ferrocenes running in my lab.
- Acceptable: I have seventeen Ferrocene installations running in my lab.
Always use a trademark as an adjective modifying a noun.* You can see the nouns we prefer under "Our trademarks."
- Unacceptable: This is a Ferrocene. Anyone can install it.
- Acceptable: This is a Ferrocene compiler. Anyone can install it.
Don't use a trademark as a verb. Trademarks are products or services, never actions.
- Unacceptable: I ferrocened my computer today!
- Acceptable: I installed Ferrocene on my computer today!
Don't use a trademark as a possessive. Instead, the following noun should be used in possessive form or the sentence reworded so there is no possessive.
- Unacceptable: Ferrocenes's error messages are very useful.
- Acceptable: The Ferrocene compilers's error messages are very useful.
Don't translate a trademark into another language.
- Unacceptable: Quiero instalar el software Ferroceno en mi sistema.
- Acceptable: Quiero instalar Ferrocene software en mi sistema.
These guidelines are based on the Model Trademark Guidelines, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. They were adopted from the System Initiative Trademark guidelines.