Trademark Policy – LF Projects, LLC

Updated May 10, 2024.
LF Projects, LLC (“LF Projects”) is a Delaware series limited liability company that hosts projects that have been established as series of LF Projects (each such project, a “Project”).
This trademark policy governs the use of trademarks owned by LF Projects and used by the Projects under license. Some trademarks of LF 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 LF 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 LF Projects.
Trademarks of LF Projects
LF Projects has the following registered trademarks:
LF Projects has registrations pending or trademarks in use for the following marks, including designs:
Logo Marks: In addition, LF Projects has visual logo trademarks in use and you must comply with any visual guidelines or additional requirements.
Trademark Usage Guidelines of LF 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 LF Projects to ensure that its trademarks remain reliable indicators of the qualities that they have been created to preserve and 2) the need of LF Projects to ensure that community members are able to discuss the projects with which LF Projects is associated and to accurately describe the relationship between LF 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 LF 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 LF Projects has no intention of interfering with that right, your right to use any specific trademark of LF 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 LF Projects trademarks by following these trademark usage guidelines protects the value of LF Projects trademarks. Any use of or reference to LF Projects trademarks that is inconsistent with this trademark policy, or use of marks that are confusingly similar to trademarks of LF Projects, is prohibited. All uses of LF Projects trademarks, and all goodwill associated therewith, will inure solely to the benefit of LF 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 LF Projects, without the express permission of the owner.
There are also some basic rights that everyone has to use any trademark, which are often referred to as “fair use,” and LF 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 LF Projects project websites.
Rules and Policies Applicable to Marks Owned by LF 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 LF Projects.
LF Projects marks have been created and their use is expressly permitted for a specific purpose. Do not use logos or names of LF Projects in any commercial or marketing context other than as expressly permitted in this policy unless you have obtained explicit written permission from LF Projects to do so. LF 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 LF Projects as a link to the home page of the applicable project or to a web page on LF 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 LF Projects shall be done using the official versions of LF Projects logos obtained from LF Projects or its projects.
Certain marks of LF 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 LF Projects’ association with the product. The use of the mark cannot imply that LF Projects or its projects are sponsoring or endorsing the product. The following are examples of proper and improper usage of these trademarks of LF Projects:
Correct: <your product name> for <LF Projects mark> Correct: <your product/company name> plug-in for <LF Projects mark> Correct: <your product name> compatib