Elixir's logo, name, usage restrictions...

[Hubert Łępicki]

Hey,

I'm getting strongly hooked up on Elixir right now. As with all the new and exciting stuff I have unstoppable urge to share. So I am organizing some events, first internally in my company, then probably externally, where I will be talking about Elixir / Phoenix and friends.

I have noticed, however, that Elixir's web site says: "2012-2015 Plataformatec. All rights reserved.". I understand that the name "Elixir" and probably the logo are also protected? Is there some sort of policy on using those, in say presentations, blog posts, t-shirts etc? Or if you can point me to correct person to ask this question privately, that would also do.

Thanks!

Hubert Łępicki

[Onorio Catenacci]

Jose would be the one to ask, I think and he'll see your question here Hubert.  I'm sure he'll reply as soon as he has a spare cycle or two.

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Onorio

[Pedro Medeiros]

Plataformatec is Jose's company. I believe that they don't have any problem with using the name/logo for those propose they are just protecting the name and log from malicious use. Which Unfortunately is very common on the software industry :(

I went to a presentation in 2012 (I think) where one of the founders of Plataformatec was explaining why is necessary to apply a good software license. And one of those things is protecting it from malicious people.

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[José Valim]

If you want to use Elixir logo or brand in any commercial setup, you need to ask Plataformatec permission. Note we have been working on the trademark and copyright to provide a clearer story here.

José Valim

www.plataformatec.com.br

Skype: jv.ptec

Founder and Director of R&D

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[Stoft]

José, what about non-profit setups such as meetup groups and similar?

[hen...@nyh.se]

On Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 2:53:57 PM UTC+2, José Valim wrote:

If you want to use Elixir logo or brand in any commercial setup, you need to ask Plataformatec permission. Note we have been working on the trademark and copyright to provide a clearer story here.

I would love for http://elixir-lang.org/ to have a page similar to https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/about/logo/ with clear information about license/usage and downloads in high res and/or some vector format. I would be happy to help out with that.

[hubert....@amberbit.com]

That was what I was looking for too

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[Hubert Łępicki]

I was observing elixir-lang.slack.com today and I think other people are slightly confused as well and would benefit from some explanations on how can, or if, they can use Elixir name and Logo. It's really simple stuff like blog posts, presentations, that we would love to include logo in for example, and I'm not really sure if we can.

Take a blog post or public speaking presentation on conference. Is it 'commercial use' or no? In all cases it serves promotion of oneself or that person's company/organization. Can we use Elixir's logo freely?

https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir-lang.github.com states:

"Elixir" and the Elixir logo are copyrighted to Plataformatec. You may not reuse anything therein without permission.

Logo is one matter, that would need some clarification on using. The other one is name. Is "Elixir" an official registered trademark of Plataformatec? I could not find any info that it is, so I assume it's not. But even if it was, just as "Java" is a trademark by Oracle, it does *not* mean other people cannot use it. And the sentence I quoted above suggests otherwise. They could ot use it to name their programming language project "Elixir", or organize "ElixirConf". But they are still allowed to use it, also *commercially* in various contexts. People do organize Java conferences without asking Oracle for permission (although Oracle may request chaging anme - like they did with Javarsovia for the reason of them beingn, well, lawyers). They organize trainings, provide programming services etc. as well.

Would it be possible to address/clarify the above points, for the good of the community? :)

Hubert Łępicki

[José Valim]

Logo is one matter, that would need some clarification on using. The other one is name. Is "Elixir" an official registered trademark of Plataformatec? I could not find any info that it is, so I assume it's not. But even if it was, just as "Java" is a trademark by Oracle, it does *not* mean other people cannot use it. And the sentence I quoted above suggests otherwise. They could ot use it to name their programming language project "Elixir", or organize "ElixirConf". But they are still allowed to use it, also *commercially* in various contexts. People do organize Java conferences without asking Oracle for permission (although Oracle may request chaging anme - like they did with Javarsovia for the reason of them beingn, well, lawyers). They organize trainings, provide programming services etc. as well.

Important: I am not a lawyer. This e-mail gives no warranties.

This is unfortunately more complicated than I would like it to be.

As you have hinted, it is not only about commercial use but about being "official". You can organize a meetup and call it an "Elixir meetup" as long as it is not treated as the "official Elixir meetup", implying it was sanctioned by whoever runs Elixir.

This is not specific to Elixir at all. It works with pretty much everything. You can create a meetup because you love McDonalds. You can write a book about how to best enjoy McDonalds sandwiches. You cannot, however, say it is the "official McDonalds meetup" or the official book for McDonalds' degustation.

[hubert....@amberbit.com]

Yes, exactly. Worst thing that can happen, however, is people being afraid to use the name "Elixir" because of some scary copyright notice. A half page of "can" and "cannot" published somewhere on elixir-lang.org could clarify a lot, if you guys found some time to do it of course...

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[hen...@nyh.se]

As I think we've discussed before, it would also be nice if the logo could be made available in a vector format and/or high-res. It could still come with restrictions about commercial use etc of course.

[Onorio Catenacci]

Love the fact that José just helped me to increase my vocabulary. I had never heard the word "degustation" before. :)

[René Föhring]

I cannot emphazise enough how right Hubert is on this topic!

I've NOT put an Elixir logo on http://inch-ci.org/ although that was one design idea during the 2014 redesign of the site and I did NOT incorporate the "drop" into the logo of http://elixirstatus.com/ ...

This wasn't done because I actually feared Plataformatec suing me but because I looked for information around logo and trademark usage and did not find any.

Since I plan to launch other Elixir projects this year, I personally would really welcome a more clear "usage guide" regarding both logo and wordmark. Also: what if I incorporate the Elixir logo in my T-Shirt-Design or other promo material for my meetup, open source project or even commercial website (I think Hubert mentioned this point already). So I am an agency that wants to advertise it does Elixir. Can I use the logo? What if I am a commercial version of something like Inch CI. Can I put the logo into banners, flyers or other promo material to advertise Elixir support inside my service?

Those are certainly *not* the most pressing questions in Elixir right now, but in my opinion we should address this sometime this year if we want to avoid the scenario painted here ("people being afraid to use the name "Elixir" because of some scary copyright notice") to happen on a broad spectrum. I know I was to "afraid" to use the logo when I started Elixir support for Inch CI over a year ago. A page stating what can and can't be done or who to contact in uncertain cases (maybe with three standard questions about the usage), would really alleviate this uncertainty.

Last but not least: This is just me rambling about details. Keep up the good work!

-René

On Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 1:39:49 PM UTC+1, Hubert Łępicki wrote:

[Hubert Łępicki]

I just had another look at my beloved Oracle's web site. They are actually doing pretty awesome in the area of making it clear on what can and can not do with their trademarks/product names:
http://www.oracle.com/us/legal/trademarks/index.html

[Robert Dober]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/degustation

or did I miss interpret your smiley. If I were Jean-Luc I would say "properly used for wine only" but I am not ;)