Trademark Policy

This document is not an official Joomla!/OSM document but a suggested alternative to the official Joomla!
Trademark Policy issued by Open Source Matters.
OSM will permit the use of Joomla! trademarks (or will refuse to do so) in accordance with
this policy, which may be changed from time to time, possibly with retrospective effect and
without prior notice.
The use of Joomla! trademarks is permitted if:
1. it is fair use; or
2. the criteria for automatic licensing have been met; or
3. Joomla! trademarks are used for third party branding and a licence has been
requested and granted; or
4. it is not an infringement in the view of OSM.

1. Fair use
Fair use is a US legal concept which has an equivalent in most other jurisdictions, and
effectively allows the use of a trademark by a non-owner where free speech is concerned. As
a rule of thumb, this applies when a trademark is used to identify the organisation, product
or service covered by the trademark (e.g. “Do you like Joomla?”), or to describe an aspect of
a third party organisation, product or service (e.g. “This extension is made for Joomla! 1.5.”).
Fair use is a matter of applicable trademark law, and therefore this trademark policy cannot
and does not regulate it.

2. Automatic licensing
The use of Joomla! trademarks for third part branding is automatically licensed if none of the
Restrictive Criteria apply while at least one of the Name Criteria and all of the Use Criteria
are met.
If there is any doubt as to whether and how the criteria for automatic licensing apply, the
opinion of OSM will be decisive. Where 'Joomla' is mentioned in these Name Criteria, that is
meant to be regardless of case, i.e. lower case, upper case and camel case.
The text of the licence granted by way of automatic licensing can be found here [LINK].

2.1. Restrictive Criteria

Any branding that matches the following criteria is subject to licensing on request,
and is in principle restricted to official use by Open Source Matters and the Joomla!
Project, even if other criteria are complied with. In these cases it is in the best
interests of the project there is no doubt that the organisation, product, service or
domain concerned is the Joomla! project itself.

2.1.1. Exclamation names

Description: Any brand or domain (partly) consisting of Joomla or J plus an
exclamation mark , or a word that sounds or looks like Joomla in any language plus
an exclamation mark.

© 2010 Ewout Wierda. This document is not an official Joomla!/OSM document but a suggested alternative
to the official Joomla! Trademark Policy issued by Open Source Matters.
 Examples: Joomla! Certification, Official J! Support

2.1.2. Reserved names

Description: Any brand or domain partly consisting of Joomla and for the remainder
consisting of one or more other proper words which are on a list of reserved words
published by OSM from time to time, whether separated by a space or not.
Examples: JoomlaDay, Joomla Developer Conference, JoomlaConnect, Joomla
Community Magazine, JoomlaCon, JoomlaCommunityMagazine

2.1.3. Localised names

Description: Any brand or domain consisting partly of Joomla and partly of some
territorial denomination, which might give the impression of official Joomla!
representation in the denominated territory.
Examples: Joomla Holland, Joomla in Antarctica

2.1.4. User group names

Description: Any brand or domain reserved for Joomla! User Groups by the Joomla!
User Group policy (see also licences on request).
Examples: Joomla User Group Holland, Joomla Friends Holland, Joomla Users in
Holland

2.2. Name Criteria

Any branding that matches the following criteria is automatically licensed by OSM
without further formality (if acceptance also follows from all Use Criteria and no
Restrictive Criteria apply).

2.2.1. Derivative names

Description: Any brand or domain predominantly consisting of a word that sounds
or looks like Joomla in any language.
Examples: Jumla, Joemla, Joumla

2.2.2. Referring names

Description: Any brand or domain to which the above name criteria do not apply,
partly consisting of the word Joomla by way of reference and in a manner which
makes it clear that the organisation, product, service or domain concerned is not
the Joomla! project itself.
Acceptable examples: Designed for Joomla, ExtXYZ for Joomla, ABC Conference on
Joomla Security
Unacceptable examples: Designed by Joomla, Joomla Design, Joomla ExtXYZ, ABC
Joomla Security Conference

2.2.3. Combined names

Description: Any brand or domain to which the above name criteria do not apply,
partly consisting of Joomla and for the remainder consisting of one or more other
proper words, whether separated by a space or not.

© 2010 Ewout Wierda. This document is not an official Joomla!/OSM document but a suggested alternative
to the official Joomla! Trademark Policy issued by Open Source Matters.
 Examples: Joomla Meeting, Joomla Daily News, JoomlaMeet, DailyJoomla

2.2.4. Joined names

Description: Any brand or domain to which the above name criteria do not apply,
partly consisting of Joomla and for the remainder consisting of (part of) another
word or name partially overlapping Joomla.
Examples: Joomlateral (Joomla + lateral overlapping), Joomlambo (Joomla + part of
Mambo)

2.2.5. Abbreviation names

Description: Any brand or domain to which the above name criteria do not apply,
partly consisting of some of the letters forming the word Joomla in the right order
(case insensitive) and or the remainder consisting of (part of) another proper or
invented word or name.
Examples: jooword, joomword, jomword, joomlword, wordoom, wordoomla

2.3. Use Criteria

Any branding that matches the following criteria is licensed by OSM without further
formality (if acceptance also follows from one of the Name Criteria and no Restrictive
Criteria apply).

2.3.1. Clarity
Description: Any branding or domain making use of Joomla! trademarks must be
used in a manner and context which does not create confusion as to whether the
organisation, product, service or domain concerned is the Joomla! project itself.
Where necessary clarity can be enhanced by displaying a Joomla! logo linking to
joomla.org and by making a clear statement removing any such doubt, for
example: “While this website and some extensions distributed here use the
Joomla!™ name, neither this website nor the extensions distributed here are
affiliated with or endorsed by Open Source Matters or the Joomla! Project.” The
rationale is that even when the name of an organization, domain, product or
service is acceptable under the Name Criteria, confusion could be created by the
context in which the name is used.
Acceptable examples: A website with both a name and a domain acceptable under
the Name Criteria distributes unmodified Joomla installation packages. A website
with both a name and a domain acceptable under the Name Criteria markets a
training course promoted as being given by ‘experienced Joomla trainers’.
Unacceptable examples: A website with both a name and a domain acceptable
under the Name Criteria distributes a package entitled ‘Joomla 3.0 Beta’, thereby
wrongly creating the impression that this package is an official distribution. A
website with both a name and a domain acceptable under the Name Criteria
markets a training course promoted as being given by ‘official Joomla trainers’,
thereby wrongly creating the impression that the training is an official or officially
endorsed Joomla! course.

© 2010 Ewout Wierda. This document is not an official Joomla!/OSM document but a suggested alternative
to the official Joomla! Trademark Policy issued by Open Source Matters.
 2.3.2. Relevance
Description: Any branding or domain making use of Joomla! trademarks must be
used in a manner and context which is relevant to Joomla!. Note that this is
something quite different from Joomla! being relevant to the branding or domain.
The rationale is that the use of Joomla! trademarks in third party branding aims to
empower the Joomla! community, not to give third parties outside of the
community a free ride on Joomla!’s brand wagon.
Acceptable examples: A website with both a name and a domain acceptable under
the Name Criteria consists of nothing more than links to other websites relating to
Joomla.
Unacceptable examples: A website with both a name and a domain acceptable
under the Name Criteria consists of nothing more than keyword landing pages with
advertisements.

2.3.3. Integrity
Description: Any branding or domain making use of Joomla! trademarks must be
used in a manner and context which does not affect the interests of Joomla!
negatively in one of the following ways. The rationale is that the use of Joomla!
trademarks in third party branding aims to empower the Joomla! community, not to
facilitate activities which are harmful to Joomla!.
2.3.3.1. The organisation, product, service or domain concerned is used to
distribute a work based on Joomla! in violation of the Joomla! software license
(the GNU GPL);
2.3.3.2. The organisation, product, service or domain concerned is used to
distribute one or more extensions containing undisclosed back doors, phone-
homes or similar code;
2.3.3.3. The organisation, product, service or domain concerned is used to
distribute one or more extensions listed by Joomla! as a vulnerable extension;
2.3.3.4. The organisation, product, service or domain concerned contains
sexually explicit or adult content or content encouraging illegal activities of any
kind; or
2.3.3.5. The organisation, product, service or domain concerned is used in a
manner which qualifies as libel, defamation or insult to the detriment of the
repute of and good will associated with Joomla! (which does not mean to say
that criticism is not allowed!).
Acceptable examples: An extension with a name acceptable under the Name
Criteria is added to the vulnerable extensions list but distribution has been
suspended. A website with both a name and a domain acceptable under the Name
Criteria contains content directly copied from joomla.org with prior OSM
permission.
Unacceptable examples: An extension with a name acceptable under the Name
Criteria contains a virus, or is a work derived from Joomla! but is not licensed under
the GPL, or is added to the vulnerable extensions list but still distributed. A website
with both a name and a domain acceptable under the Name Criteria contains
content directly copied from joomla.org without permission, or violates the Logo
policy, or contains adult content or promotes illegal activity.

© 2010 Ewout Wierda. This document is not an official Joomla!/OSM document but a suggested alternative
to the official Joomla! Trademark Policy issued by Open Source Matters.
3. License on request
When automatic licensing does not follow from this policy, you may still send OSM a
trademark licence request setting out your particular circumstances and reasons, and your
request will then be considered as constructively as possible.
An example of branding for which a licence could be requested is a derivative name,
meaning any brand or domain which almost completely consists of the letters that form the
word Joomla in the right order, such as Jooomla, Joomlaa, Joomlabc, ijoomla. Such names will
likely be licensed because they often do not cause much doubt as to whether the
organisation, product, service or domain concerned is the Joomla! project itself, but they are
confusing at times and susceptible to abuse so they are not licensed automatically.
For branding of a Joomla! User Groups licences are granted as part of the registration
process in accordance with the Joomla! user Groups Policy.

4. No infringement
For the sake of completeness, it is worth noting that ultimately it will always depend on
applicable law whether the use of a Joomla! Trademark legally constitutes an infringement.
To assess this, trademark laws in different countries commonly question whether there is a
likelihood of confusing similarity making consumers believe that third party products or
services originate from the trademark holder.
However, there are subtle but important differences in the trademark laws of different
countries. Also, the question of confusing similarity is unavoidably a matter case by case
interpretation of how the law applies to the case and in each case all parties concerned have
an equal right to their own interpretation until a Court decides.
OSM does not have the resources to adapt itself to each of the laws of the many countries,
and OSM will consider unauthorised use of Joomla! trademarks (as well as the fair use
exception) according to its own discretionary interpretation.
Obviously, this does not provide third parties with much certainty as to what would apply at
law and what may be expected from OSM. Therefore, in most cases it may be best to try and
meet the criteria for automatic licensing or request a licence in accordance with this
trademark policy. The criteria for automatic licensing express what OSM is comfortable with
and may not always correspond exactly to applicable law, but they do provide some clarity
and thereby a degree of certainty.

© 2010 Ewout Wierda. This document is not an official Joomla!/OSM document but a suggested alternative
to the official Joomla! Trademark Policy issued by Open Source Matters.