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Apache Trademark Resources And Site Map

A listing of various helpful information about Apache® trademarks, including links to some general information about trademarks in open source. The ASF considers the names of all Apache projects and software products to be trademarks of the ASF.

Apache Trademark Information Site Map

This is a site map with links to all Apache Software Foundation (ASF) trademark documents, categorized by audience - i.e. are you an Apache PMC member or committer working within an Apache project, or are you a user, new contributor, software vendor, or third party?

For Users And Outside Parties For Apache PMCs And Committers
Apache Trademark Usage Policy PMC Branding Responsibilities
Apache Trademark Usage FAQs Project Website Branding Policy
Apache Product Name Usage Guide Project Independence – Required PMC Procedures
Third Party Domain Name Branding Policy Trademark Problem/Infringement Reporting Process
Third Party Event Branding Policy Corporate Recognition Best Practices
List of Apache Registered Trademarks Social Media Best Practices
Non-Software Merchandise Branding Policy Process For Selecting New Apache Software Product Names
Contacting Apache With Trademark Questions Incubator Branding Policy For Podlings
Asking non-Trademark related Legal questions How To: Request Registration of Your Project Name

Apache Trademark Policy Presentations / Slides / Videos

Here are presentation that explain how to use Apache brands, for Apache projects and for others using Apache software in their organizations:

Other Useful Trademark Information

Trademark law is a complicated subject, varying by country. Free and open source software projects - often developed by a broad collection of volunteers, and often copied/improved upon or used for services - sometimes struggle with properly using and enforcing their trademarks, especially in the face of sometimes fierce and fast-moving commercial companies looking to profit from this work.

Here are a number of external links that you may find useful in learning about trademark law and how trademarks apply to FOSS software like our many Apache software projects.

Paper or Article Title Description of why this external link is interesting
FOSSMarks A practical guide to understanding trademarks in the context of Free and Open Source Software projects - an excellent overview
Practical Trademark Law For FOSS Projects Slide deck covering the basics of trademark law as applies to FOSS
A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects Key overview from a legal perspective about how trademark law applies to free and open source software products
Passport Without A Visa: Open Source Software Licensing and Trademarks Overview of how trademarks and licenses apply to free and open source software projects
Model Trademark Guidelines Sample set of legal trademark guidelines for use by FOSS projects or organizations
OSI Trademark Policy OSI's own trademark use policy, with good descriptions of different kinds of uses of software-related trademarks
Open Source License vs. Copyright vs. Trademark - How They Differ Basic non-legal review of copyright vs. license vs. trademark
Trademark and OSS General review of trademark applicability to open source
Open For Business: The importance of trademarks, even for an open source business Detailed story of a new project working through defining and registering their trademark
Trademark Law: An Open-Source Casebook University curriculum for trademark law class, focusing on open source use and issues.
The Rise and Evolution of the Open Source Software Foundation Review of importance/growth of OSS foundations
FLOSS Foundations Directory Listing of OSS foundations, also hosts foundations@ mailing list
How to grow your open source project 10x and revenues 5x Simple study of governance processes of OSS foundations

While many Apache software product names are unregistered trademarks, more and more Apache project communities are choosing to register their product name in the US and/or other countries. These external links are just a few of the sites you might use to search for legally registered trademarks. Pro tip: The Nice Class 9 is used for most software-related trademarks.

IMPORTANT: External links here do not imply endorsement of the content or the author of any externally hosted information. Apache Trademark policies apply to projects hosted at the Apache Software Foundation and to use of any Apache brands by third parties. If you require legal advice, contact your own legal counsel; the ASF and our communities cannot provide legal advice to you.

Reminder: Apache software code and documentation, including this page, is provided under the Apache License, v2.0. This allows you to freely re-use this content for a wide variety of purposes in most cases. However the Apache License does not allow use of our trademarks: See section 6. Trademarks for details.