This is a statement of Mr. Benjamin Vedder's Trademarks & his policy & guidelines relating to the use of trademarks owned by Mr. Benjamin Vedder & used by his projects.
For purposes of this document, references to trademarks or marks include all trade & service marks & logos owned by Mr. Benjamin Vedder. This document outlines the policy of Mr. Benjamin Vedder ("Mr Vedder" for short) regarding the use of Mr Vedder Marks.
Mr. Vedder's Trademarks
Mr. Vedder has the following trademark registered in the European Union, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Israel, Russia, Switzerland, USA and China:
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VESC® (Word Mark)
Mr. Vedder applied for trademarks in a variety of countries outside the EU (registration pending):
- VESC (Word Mark)
In addition Mr. Vedder uses the following marks:
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Vedder
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BLDC Tool
Logo Marks: In addition, Mr. Vedder's projects have visual logo marks in use.
Mr. Vedder Trademark Usage Guidelines
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:
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the need of Mr. Vedder to ensure that his trademarks remain reliable indicators of the qualities that they have been created to preserve and
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the need of Mr. Vedder to ensure that community members are able to discuss the projects with which Mr. Vedder is associated and to accurately describe the relationship between Mr. Vedder 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 Mr. Vedder 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 Mr. Vedder has no intention of interfering with that right, your right to use any specific trademark of Mr. Vedder 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 Mr. Vedder trademarks by following these trademark usage guidelines protects the value of Mr. Vedder trademarks. Any use of or reference to Mr. Vedder's trademarks that is inconsistent with this trademark policy, or use of marks that are confusingly similar to trademarks of Mr. Vedder, is prohibited. All uses of Mr. Vedders's trademarks, and all goodwill associated therewith, will inure solely to the benefit of Mr. Vedder.
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 Mr. Vedder, without the express permission of the owner.
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A trademark should never be used as a verb or noun. A trademark should be used only as an adjective followed by the generic name/noun.
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A trademark should not be used on/for products (e.g. circuit boards, hardware, software, services)
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A trademark should not be used in the plural or possessive form.
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A trademark should not be altered or amended in any way. A mark should not be combined with any other mark, hyphenated, abbreviated or displayed in parts. A trademark that is depicted as two or more words should not be compressed into one word. A logo should not be displayed with colour variations, or with other elements superimposed on top of the logo.
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A trademark should not be used as your domain name or as part of your domain name.
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A trademark should not be used as part of your product name.
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A trademark should not be incorporated into your company's logos or designs.
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A trademark notice should be used on the most prominent and/or first appearance of each mark of Mr. Vedder, and a trademark notice should not be changed. In particular, a ™ should not be changed to an ® in a trademark notice by anyone other than the owner. If you are unsure about whether a mark of Mr. Vedder is registered in your country, please contact us for additional guidance as to what trademark symbol you should use.
There are also some basic rights that everyone has to use any trademark, which are often referred to as “fair use,” and Mr. Vedder 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 Mr. Vedders websites.
Rules & Policies Applicable to Marks Owned by Mr. Vedder
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 Mr. Vedder.
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Use the full form of any trademarks (e.g., “VESC® Tool”) in the first reference in all documents of mass communication, including marketing collateral and web pages. You may then use any abbreviated or short form references (e.g. “V-Tool”) within the same the document where the full form has already been used.
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Use Mr. Vedder's trademarks in a form that distinguishes them from the text around them, such as by capitalization, bold or italic fonts, or with quotation marks. Any use of registered trademarks listed above should include the ® symbol immediately after the first usage (e.g., “VESC® Tool is open source….”). Any use of unregistered trademarks listed above should include a TM immediately after the first usage (e.g., “Vedder TM community seeks to secure….”)
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Do not use Mr. Vedder's trademarks in a manner that would disparage Mr. Vedders projects (e.g., untruthful advertising, false/misleading promotional materials, etc.).
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Do not use a logo of Mr. Vedder on the cover of a book or magazine, for software or hardware or any other product without written permission from Mr. Vedder.
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Do not use Mr. Vedder's trademarks more prominently than your own company, product or service name.
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Do not use Mr. Vedder's trademarks more often than needed to communicate compatibility or interoperability of software or products.
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Do not use Mr. Vedder's trademarks as auction/website/product title.
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The product name/title can't contain Mr. Vedder's trademarks.
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Do not use a logo of Mr. Vedder on posters, brochures, signs, websites, or other marketing materials to promote your events, products or services without written permission from Mr. Vedder.
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Do not refer to a product or service as being certified under any of Mr. Vedder’s marks unless your company has successfully undergone the requisite compliance testing and has explicit authorization to use such terms from VESC.
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Do not attempt to claim or assert any ownership rights in any mark of Mr. Vedder and do not attempt to register any of Mr. Vedder's trademarks as a trademark, trade name, domain name, or “doing business as” name, alone or (unless specifically licensed) in combination with your own trademarks.
The Mr.Vedder marks have been created and their use is expressly permitted for a specific purpose. Do not use logos or names of Mr. Vedder in any commercial or marketing context other than as expressly permitted in this policy unless you have obtained explicit written permission from Mr. Vedder to do so. Mr. Vedder permits the use of his 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 Mr. Vedder as a link to the home page of the applicable project or to a web page on Mr. Vedders 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 Mr. Vedder shall be done using the official versions of Mr. Vedder's logos obtained from the Mr. Vedders official website or his official projects.
Certain marks of Mr. Vedder 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 Mr. Vedders association with the product. The use of the mark cannot imply that Mr. Vedder or his projects are sponsoring or endorsing the product. The following are examples of proper and improper usage of these trademarks of Mr. Vedder:
Correct: "your product name" compatible with "Mr.Vedder mark"
example: compatible with VESC® Software
Correct: "your product name" for use with "Mr.Vedder mark"
example: xyz Controller for use with VESC® Software
Incorrect: "Mr.Vedder mark"-"your product name"
example: VESC® Your Brand
Incorrect: "your product name"- "Mr.Vedder mark"
example: Your Brand VESC®
Questions, Comments, Concerns
We look to our community to help us retain the value of Mr. Vedder's trade and service marks. If you have questions with respect to these guidelines or to report concerns regarding the use or misuse of a trademark of Mr. Vedder, or to obtain written permission for a proposed use of Mr. Vedder trademarks, contact: trademarks@vedder.se
Disclaimer
Mr. Vedder does not make any express or implied warranties, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of any third party intellectual property rights. Mr. Vedder does not warrant that any pending trademark applications for trademarks of Mr. Vedder will result in any granted trademark protection. Mr. Vedder shall not be liable for any claims relating to user’s activities falling within the scope of the permission and user hereby agrees to indemnify, defend and hold Mr. Vedder and its contributors harmless against any such claims.
Updates
Mr. Vedder may release new versions of this trademark policy or statements of permitted use of Mr. Vedder marks from time to time without notice.
This work is inspired by the The Linux Foundation Trademarks and Trademark Usage Guidelines. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (“CC BY 4.0”, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).