Trademark Guidelines
Our commitment to open source principles & high standards of conduct
Trademarks subject to the guidelines
Universal considerations for all uses
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- Distribution of unmodified source code or unmodified executable code we have compiled
- Distribution of executable code that you have compiled, or modified code
- Statements about compatibility, interoperability or derivation
- Use of trademarks to show community affiliation
- Distribution of modified software
- Distribution of software preloaded on hardware
Use for non-software goods and services
Introduction
This document, the “Policy,” sets forth the policy for the use of our trademarks. While our software is available under an open source software license, the copyright license does not include an implied right or license to use our trademark.
The role of trademarks is to provide assurance about the quality of the products or services with which the trademark is associated. Because an open source license allows your 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.
In this Policy, we are not trying to limit proper use of our trademarks, but rather describe for you what we consider the parameters of proper use to be. We hope to provide enough clarity for you to understand whether we will consider your use to be proper.
The sections that follow describe what trademarks are covered by this Policy, as well as trademark uses that are allowed without additional permissions from us.
If you would like 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. We reserve the right to revoke permission for any of the approved uses set forth in this Policy at any time. This Policy is also subject to change at any time, at our discretion. We will send out a notification when making changes to this policy. You can subscribe to our newsletter here in order to receive these and other notifications.
Our commitment to open source principles & high standards of conduct
This Policy strives to strike the proper balance between 1) our need to ensure that our trademarks remain reliable indicators of quality, 2) our need to ensure that we preserve the integrity of the community which these marks represent and 3) our community members’ desire to be full participants in the Project.
We want to encourage and facilitate the use of our trademarks by the community but do so in a way that still ensures that the trademarks are meaningful as a source and quality indicator for our organization and its associated goods and services. This will allow us to continue to embody the high reputation of our Projects and the community associated with them.
We expect that any use of our marks will be in accordance with our Code of Conduct. Those using our marks are a reflection of our community and we would not condone any use, allowed or otherwise, that does not adhere to these high standards of conduct.
Trademarks subject to the guidelines
Our trademarks
This Policy covers our word trademarks and service marks (the “Word Marks”) and our Logos (the “Logos”), including NumFOCUS, PyData and all of our Fiscally Sponsored Projects (collectively “Projects”).
This Policy encompasses all trademarks and service marks, whether Word Marks or Logos which are collectively referred to as the “Marks.” 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 trademarks for which we are not allowing any use
The following trademarks are reserved exclusively for our use and may not be used unless you have obtained prior authorization from us:
| Word Mark | Logo |
| NumFOCUS |  |
| PyData |  |
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.
Universal considerations for all uses
Whenever you use one of our 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. You cannot say you are distributing a NumFOCUS project’s 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 a project’s download or installation site. You also cannot use our logos without permission on your website in a way that suggests that your website is an official website, that we endorse your website, or that you are a corporate sponsor.
You can, though, say you like NumFOCUS Projects, that you participate in a NumFOCUS Project community, that you are providing an unmodified version of our Project’s software, or that you wrote a book describing how to use our Project’s software.
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 must never use the Marks in any way that reflects poorly on our community. You must never use our marks in such a way as to promote, condone, or represent any behavior that is prohibited by our Code of Conduct or any person or entity whose comportment violates our Code of Conduct.
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, our Marks as part of your own trademark, service mark, domain name, company name, trade name, product name or service name.
You may not use names or trademarks that are similar to ours without first obtaining written approval. 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.
You may not acquire any rights in the Marks and any goodwill generated by your use of the Marks inures solely to our benefit.
You may not use our marks for any commercial purposes without prior approval.
Use for software
See Universal considerations for all uses above, which also apply.
Examples of proper use:
Distribution of unmodified source code or unmodified executable code we have compiled
When you redistribute an unmodified copy of our software, you are not changing the quality or nature of it. Therefore, you may retain the Word Marks and the Logos placed on the software to identify your redistribution — 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 our Project that has not been changed in any way.
Distribution of executable code that you have compiled, or modified code
You may use the Word Marks, but not the Logos, to truthfully describe the origin of the software that you are providing, that is, that the code you are distributing is a modification of our Project’s software. You may say that “this software is derived from the source code for scikit-image.”
Of course, you can place your own trademarks or logos on versions of the software to which you have made substantive modifications because by modifying the software you have become the origin of that exact version. In that case, you should not use our Logos.
Statements about compatibility, interoperability or derivation
You may use the Word Marks, but not the Logos, to truthfully describe the relationship between your software and our Project’s software. Our Mark should be used after a verb or preposition that describes the relationship between your software and our Project’s. So you may say “Jill’s software for pandas” but may not say “Jill’s pandas software.” Some other phrases that you may use are:
[Your software] works with mlpack
[Your software] uses matplotlib
[Your software] is compatible with bokeh
[Your software] is powered by conda-forge
[Your software] runs on NumPy
[Your software] for use with SciPy
[Your software] for scikit-learn
Use of trademarks to show community affiliation
This section discusses the use of our Marks for software such as application themes, skins, and personas. The use of our Marks on websites is discussed below.
You may use the Word Marks and the Logos in themes, personas, or skins for applications to show your support for the Project, provided that the use is non-commercial and the use is clearly decorative, as contrasted with a use that appears to be the branding for a website or application.
Distribution of modified software
You may use the Word Marks and the Logos for the distribution of executable code on the condition that it is made from official Project source code using the procedure documented for creating an executable found on the Project’s website.
Distribution of software preloaded on hardware
You may use the Word Marks and Logos in association with hardware devices on the condition that the software installed on the device is modified only so far as necessary to operate on the hardware platforms and the essential functions of the software are unchanged, and that you do not suggest that the Project is the source of the hardware device itself but rather that the Marks are for the software incorporated into the device.
Use of trademarks to show community affiliation
This section discusses the use of our Marks for software such as application themes, skins, and personas. The use of our Marks on websites is discussed below.
You may use the Word Marks and the Logos in themes, personas, or skins for applications to show your support for the Project, provided that the use is non-commercial and the use is clearly decorative, as contrasted with a use that appears to be the branding for a website or application.
Distribution of modified software
You may use the Word Marks and the Logos for the distribution of executable code on the condition that it is made from official Project source code using the procedure documented for creating an executable found on the Project’s website.
Distribution of software preloaded on hardware
You may use the Word Marks and Logos in association with hardware devices on the condition that the software installed on the device is modified only so far as necessary to operate on the hardware platforms and the essential functions of the software are unchanged, and that you do not suggest that the Project is the source of the hardware device itself but rather that the Marks are for the software incorporated into the device.
Use for non-software goods and services
See Universal considerations for all uses above, which also apply.
Examples of proper use:
Websites
You may use the Word Marks and Logos, on your webpage to show your support for the Project as long as:
- The website has branding that is easily distinguished from the Project;
- Your own branding or naming is more prominent than any Project Marks;
- The Logos hyperlink to the Project’s website;
- The site does not mislead consumers into thinking that either your website, service, or product is our website, service, or product; and
- The site clearly states that you are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Project. (Unless you have entered into an agreement with NumFOCUS that states otherwise or have obtained prior authorization from the Project.)
Publications and presentations
You may use the Word Marks in book and article titles, and the Logo in illustrations within the document, as long as the use does not suggest that we have published, endorse, or agree with your work.
User groups
You must obtain authorization from NumFOCUS or its Projects to use the Word Marks as part of a user group name and your group must follow these guidelines:
- The main focus of the group is the use of the Project;
- Any software or services the group provides are without cost;
- The group does not make a profit;
- Any charge to attend meetings is to cover the cost of the venue, food, and drink only.
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.
Uses we consider improper without seeking further permission from us
We will consider using the Marks as part of a domain name or subdomain an improper use of our Marks.
We will consider using the Marks on promotional goods or commercial goods an improper use of our Marks.
General Information
Trademark marking and legends
If you are using our Marks in a way described in the section “Examples of proper use,” you must put the 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: “[Mark] is a trademark of NumFOCUS.”
General considerations about our trademarks and their use
Proper trademark use
You should follow these rules when engaging in proper use of our Marks:
Use of our trademarks in text
Always use our trademarks in their exact form with the correct spelling, neither abbreviated, hyphenated, or combined with any other word or words.
Unacceptable: Mathjacks
Acceptable: MathJax
Don’t pluralize our trademarks.
Unacceptable: I have seventeen Jupyters open right now.
Acceptable: I have seventeen Jupyter Notebooks open right now.
Don’t use “a” or “the” to refer to an instance of our trademark.
Unacceptable: I installed a conda-forge on my mom’s computer.
Acceptable: I installed conda-forge on my mom’s computer.
Don’t use our trademark as a verb. Our trademarks are products or services, never actions.
Unacceptable: I Daskified my computer today!
Acceptable: I installed Dask on my computer today!
Don’t translate our trademark into another language.
Unacceptable: Quiero instalar EMPALIZADA en mi sistema.
Aceptable: Quiero instalar PALISADE en mi sistema.
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.