AmpliPi™ is a trademark of MicroNova LLC. You may not use this trademark without prior express written permission of MicroNova LLC and pursuant to the trademark policy shown below. This unmodified file must be included with all copies of the AmpliPi software.
Version 1.0
Last Modified: March 8, 2021
- Introduction
- Our Commitment to Open Source Principles
- Trademarks Subject to the Guidelines
- Universal Considerations for All Uses
- Use for Software
- Use for Non-Software Goods and Services
- General Considerations About Trademarks and Their Use
- Where to Get Further Information
This document, the "Policy," outlines the AmpliPi 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 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. But 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 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 licensed or 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, or if you are uncertain about any of the following information contained 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 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 software and the associated goods and services and continue to embody the high reputation of the software and the community associated with it. This Policy therefore tries to strike the proper balance between: 1) our need to ensure that our trademarks remain reliable indicators of the qualities that they are meant to preserve and 2) our community members' desire to be full participants in the Project.
This policy covers:
- Our word trademark (the "Word Marks"): AmpliPi
- Our logos (the "Logos"): AmpliPi logos
- And the unique visual styling of our website and packaging (the "Trade Dress").
This Policy encompasses all trademarks and service marks, whether Word Marks, Logos or Trade Dress, 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 "MicroNova" word mark, logos and visual styling are reserved exclusively to our use and are not covered by the Policy. Contact us as described in "Where to Get Further Information" below if you have questions about 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 AmpliPi 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 AmpliPi software, that you participate in the AmpliPi community, that you are providing an unmodified version of the AmpliPi software, or that you wrote a book describing how to use the AmpliPi 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 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.
- 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.
This kind of use only applies to unmodified source code, unmodified executable code we have compiled, or unmodified disk images we have built.
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 we have placed on the software to identify your redistribution -- whether that redistribution is made by download or physical media of unmodified source code, unmodified executable code, or unmodified disk image. Under this kind of use, modifications are permitted only to non-executable files for configuration (e.g. to enable/disable features already included in the software) and/or localization (i.e. to add support for additional human languages).
This kind of use applies to modified source code, executable code that you have compiled, or disk images that you have built.
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 software. You may say, for example, that "this software is derived from the source code for AmpliPi software", or "this disk image contains AmpliPi software".
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.
In any event, you must ensure that you are in compliance with the software license for AmpliPi, which requires (among other things) that any modifications you make to AmpliPi must likewise be made open source under the same license. See accompanying software license file for more information.
You may use the Word Marks, but not the Logos, 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 your software and ours. So you may say, for example, "Bob's software for the AmpliPi platform" but may not say "Bob's AmpliPi software." Some other examples that may work for you are:
- [Your software] works with AmpliPi software
- [Your software] uses AmpliPi software
- [Your software] is compatible with AmpliPi software
- [Your software] is powered by AmpliPi software
- [Your software] runs on AmpliPi software
- [Your software] for use with AmpliPi software
- [Your software] for AmpliPi software
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.
This kind of use concerns hardware associated with AmpliPi (This may include: hardware that comes preloaded with AmpliPi software, hardware that is advertised, marketed, or documented as being compatible with AmpliPi software, or hardware otherwise intended for use with AmpliPi software.)
You may use the Word Marks and the Logos in association with hardware devices if and only if ALL of the following conditions are met:
- The AmpliPi software installed on the device is only to be modified so far as necessary to operate on the hardware platform, while the essential functions of the software are unchanged.
- 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. For example, "[Your product name] runs AmpliPi software" or "[Your product name] with AmpliPi software" are acceptable, but "[Your product name] AmpliPi", "[Your product name] AmpliPi controller", or "AmpliPi by [your company name]" are not acceptable.
- You must release full and unabridged schematics for your hardware device.
- You must contact us and obtain prior written approval. See section "Where to Get Further Information" for our contact information. This review process helps ensure that hardware products associated with AmpliPi adhere to open source principles, benefit the AmpliPi community and our contributors, and are compliant with the AmpliPi trademark policies, software license, and applicable laws.
We will likely consider using the Marks in 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 binary for both software programs, as well as if by installing our software it automatically installs yours. We will likely not consider your software "combined" with ours if it is on the same media but requires separate, independent action to install it.
Having said that, if you have new ideas for integrating AmpliPi with other software, please reach out to us for further discussion. We are open to new ideas that are of benefit to the AmpliPi project, our contributors, and to the open source community as a whole. Our contact information can be found in the section "Where to Get Further Information".
See "Universal Considerations for All Uses", above, which also apply.
You may use the Word Marks and Logos, but not the Trade Dress, on your webpage to show your support for the Project as long as:
- The website has branding that is easily distinguished from the Project Trade Dress;
- You own branding or naming is more prominent than any Project Marks;
- The Logos hyperlink to the Project website;
- The site does not mislead customers 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.
You can 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, endorsed, or agreed 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 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.
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 for sale an infringement of our Marks.
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 "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 she is offering "Maude'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 generally hold true for all trademarks, not just ours, so you should follow them for our Marks as well as anyone else's.
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Always distinguish trademarks from surrounding text by capitalising them correctly. "AmpliPi" is correctly written in CamelCase with the first 'A' and last 'P' capitalized. Note that this is not always possible in technical contexts that are case-insensitive (such as DNS names and email addresses.)
- Unacceptable: amplipi, AMPLIPI
- Acceptable: AmpliPi, amplipi.local
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Always use trademarks in their exact form with the correct spelling, neither abbreviated, hyphenated, or combined with any other word or words.
- Unacceptable: Ampli-Pi, AmpliPie
- Acceptable: AmpliPi
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Don't pluralize a trademark.
- Unacceptable: I have three AmpliPi's running in my house.
- Acceptable: I have three AmpliPi units running in my house.
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Don't use "an" or "the" to refer to an instance of the trademark.
- Unacceptable: I installed the AmpliPi on my Raspberry Pi.
- Acceptable: I installed the AmpliPi software on my Raspberry Pi.
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Don't use a trademark as a verb.
- Unacceptable: I AmpliPied my home today!
- Acceptable: I installed the AmpliPi system in my home today!
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Don't use a trademark as a possessive.
- Unacceptable: AmpliPi's user interface is very clean.
- Acceptable: The AmpliPi user interface is very clean.
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.
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, would like to suggest improvements to this Policy, or if you see any abuse of our Marks, please reach out to us via our contact form or via email at amplipi [at] micro-nova [dot] com.
This Policy is based in part on the Model Trademark Guidelines available at: http://www.modeltrademarkguidelines.org.
Both this Policy and the Model Trademark Guidelines are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. While this Policy text can be adapted to fit other purposes, only the original, unmodified Policy as distributed by MicroNova LLC shall apply to our trademarks discussed herein.