Trademark

Trademark Usage

We at the Leosac project love it when people talk about Leosac, build businesses around Leosac, and create products and services that make life better for Leosac users and developers.
While the codebase is available to you under an open source license, the term Leosac and the Leosac Logo are trademarks of Leosac SAS.

We actively protect our trademark to ensure there is no confusion in the community. The trademark gives us the exclusive right to use the term as the name of websites, services, businesses and products. Although these rights are exclusively ours, we are happy to give people permission to use the term under certain circumstances. The following is a general policy that tells you when you can use the Leosac name without need of any specific permission from Leosac SAS.

1. You must make clear that you are not Leosac SAS, nor do you have any affiliation with Leosac SAS or the Leosac project. The following disclaimer is sufficient:
“This [website/service/business/product] uses Leosac and is not endorsed or certified by Leosac SAS. Leosac and the Leosac Logo are trademarks of Leosac SAS”
2. You may not incorporate the Leosac name or logo into the name or logo of your website, product, business or service.
3. You may use the Leosac name in descriptions of your website, product, business or service to provide accurate information to the public about yourself. You may not imply any endorsement by Leosac SAS or the Leosac project.
You may use the Leosac name, for example, in a referential phrase such as “runs on,” “for use with,” “for,” or “compatible with.”
Example: You may write “Our company offers hosting for Leosac, but not Leosac hosting offered by Company X” as the later suggest your offering a service from Leosac SAS at your web site.
4. You may not use the Leosac logo.

When using the Leosac name in a purely descriptive manner, such as in an article in a publication, or a presentation, no permission is needed to use the trademark.
To request the use of the Leosac name or logo in a way not covered above, please contact us at legal@leosac.com.

Trademark FAQ

What is a trademark?
    According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, “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. ”

Is the Leosac name trademarked?
    Yes, the name is trademarked by Leosac SAS.

Is the Leosac logo trademarked?
    Yes, the logo is trademarked by Leosac SAS.

Why aren’t the logo and name covered by the AGPL?
    The AGPL is a license that defines the terms of use for the Leosac code. A license does not serve the same function as a copyright or trademark and the AGPL itself is designed for software not for logos or names.

If Leosac is free and open source, why does it need to protect its trademarks?
    Trademarks protect the work of the project and the individuals contributing to it by preventing the exploitation of the good name of Leosac by other people or organizations. The trademark also prevents confusion of other organizations or companies with Leosac or Leosac SAS.
The name and logo are very different than the Leosac codebase, which is freely available for you to inspect, modify and redistribute under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).

Would copyright protect the Leosac name?
    No. Copyright is used for literary or creative works (including code) but is never used to protect names.

Can I transliterate “Leosac”?
    In no case should the word Leosac™ be transliterated using the local language glyphs or alphabet. A Leosac logo may never use Leosac transliterated. However, in text you may make a pronunciation guide for users of the local language. On websites where the primary language does not use Latin characters, in the text of content items that use Leosac descriptively, transliteration may be used, but this must be accompanied by a disclaimer acknowledging Leosac SAS as the trademark holder and with the correct form of the name. Typically this would be in the footer of a site.

Do I have to put the trademark symbol every time I write the word “Leosac”?
    No, you only need to do so in the first prominent use.