Trademark Policy

Digium takes its trademark rights seriously. The trademarks DIGIUM and ASTERISK signal quality, dependability, and the cutting edge, especially to those familiar with IP telephony.

All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on Digium.com are the property of their respective owners.

The trademarks DIGIUM and ASTERISK signal quality, dependability, and the cutting edge, especially to those familiar with IP telephony. Digium, Inc. ("Digium"), as the owner of these trademarks and others, takes the value of these marks seriously. This Digium Trademark Policy (the "Policy") sets forth the basic terms and conditions upon which Digium may consent to the use by others of the trademarks owned by Digium. It also sets out limitations and conditions that we expect every person to abide by when using any of the marks of Digium. If you use any of the Trademarks in any way (whether in a domain name, path, advertising, tag line, website, or otherwise), you must abide by this policy, unless you have a separate express arrangement agreed to by Digium. We encourage communication to prevent misunderstanding. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Company Inquiry.

General

Digium takes its trademark rights seriously. You may be aware that certain software of Digium, such as non-commercial versions of ASTERISK software, is distributed under the GPL as "open source" software. While this means we have consented to certain distributions of these versions of the software under our copyright rights, the GPL does not affect our ability to control our trademark rights. The issues addressed by copyright and trademark are entirely separate. In order to preserve the integrity of our trademarks, and to help the public rely on our trademarks as an indication of source and quality, we strictly control trademark use. Although you may distribute and modify certain of our software under the GPL, you may use our Trademarks in connection with those modifications and distributions only if you comply with this Policy (or another agreement with Digium specific to you). (This section shall not be interpreted to place any software under the GPL; whether specific software is distributed under the GPL is determined by reference to the documentation and licensing materials specific to that software.)

Recognizing that under the GPL developers may make changes to certain versions of the original ASTERISK code, Digium considers it important to distinguish between "Genuine" Digium Software and third-party versions. Genuine Digium Software is the software in the same form as originally distributed by Digium, without modification to the code of any extent. The only exception is that software may still be considered Genuine Digium Software if, in connection with distribution of that software for a certain platform, code has been removed that relates to functions that would not work on that platform in any event. Once a change has been made to the software, even if that change may be permissible under the GPL, the software is no longer Genuine Digium Software, because Digium did not make or control the change. Similarly, a hardware product is not considered "Genuine" if it (or its installation package) has been changed in any way, even if that change is only the changing of a driver. We are certain you can appreciate that we do not want the public to think that the changed hardware or software, over which we did not have control, is provided or endorsed by Digium. We also believe that the public has a right to know, more generally, when it is receiving the code version originally distributed by the originator of the product, or one that has been modified by a down-stream developer. The term "Genuine Digium Product" therefore means only Genuine Digium Software and Genuine Digium hardware.

Policy Term and Updates

Digium reserves the right to modify this Policy at any time, and intends to review this Policy for potential updates from time to time, at least yearly. You are responsible for reviewing this Policy from time to time so that you will be aware of any updates. Even if you do not have notice of a change to the Policy, on February 28 of each year you should review the Policy that is then posted. You agree that you will be deemed to be on notice of any change in terms of this Policy upon the earlier of (i) actual access by you of the Policy as changed; or (ii) notice that a change to the Policy has occurred; or (iii) the February 28th following the change. Following such events, you may not rely on any earlier version of this Policy other than the one posted at the time of such event. Additionally, Digium may from time to time notify specific persons of specific terms that apply to that person, or of updates to this Policy. Any such specific terms that have been notified to you by Digium will take precedence over, and will override, this Policy (even a later version of this Policy).

The Trademarks

Digium owns the following trademarks and service marks, among others: DIGIUM, ASTERISK, AsteriskNOW, IAX, and DUNDi. Digium's rights are not limited to a particular style of presentation, design, logo, or font, but extend to any use of the trademarks, in any presentation. Digium also has adopted certain logo forms that it uses or authorizes others to use. In addition to the rights in the words of the trademarks, Digium claims trademark rights in these logo forms. The term "Trademarks" in this Policy will refer to each and every one of these trademarks, whether presented in the logo form or presented in some other manner. The term "Word Form" means a substantially text-only presentation of a Trademark in an appearance that would not be interpreted to be part of a logo. The term "Logo Form" refers to any use of a Trademark as part of a logo or in an appearance that would be interpreted to be part of a logo.

Digium is the owner of U.S. federal trademark registrations 2988591 and 3013408 (and, by the time you read this, possibly others). In addition to federal trademark registration, Digium enjoys rights in unregistered marks under federal law and state law. Digium also owns applications for its trademarks throughout the world.

Uses that are Not Approved by this Policy

This Policy will not be interpreted to allow any of the following uses or actions.

1. Use of a Trademark in a domain name.


2. Use of a Trademark in a company name.


3. Use of a Trademark in a webpage title, TITLETAG, META tag, or other manner with the intent or the likely effect of influencing search engine rankings or results listings. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this section does not prohibit "fair use" or nominative use of Word Form of the Trademarks in the content of the webpage itself as long as usage is in accordance with the remainder of the terms of this Policy. For example, if you are a consultant, you may advertise that you provide services relating to Asterisk, but you should not do so in such a manner that applies the Asterisk Trademark to your services (such as "We are a provider of Asterisk services"), because this suggests that you are providing services under the Asterisk brand.


4. The naming or marketing of any software or product by the name "DIGIUM" or "ASTERISK" (another Digium Trademark), unless that software or product is an Genuine Digium Product.


5. Use of a Trademark to refer to services offered by your company, or to suggest that your services are authorized or endorsed by Digium.


6. Use of a Trademark in a manner that creates a "combined mark," or use that integrates other wording with the Trademark in a way that the public may think of the use as a new mark (for example, SuperAsterisk, or Asterisk Lite, or use in a way that by use of special fonts or presentation for the Trademark and nearby words or images conveys an impression that the two are tied in some way), or use in a Logo Form other than the Logo Forms as specifically approved in this Policy.


7. Use that fails to comply with the Trademark Marking and Notice Section and the Form of Use sections of this Policy


8. Use of a Trademark in a manner that disparages Digium or its products


9. Use that violates any provision of this Policy

Digium will review circumstances such as the above on a case-by-case basis as information comes to Digium's attention.

Uses Permitted Under this Policy

Subject to the other terms of this Policy, Digium will allow you to use the Trademarks in the following circumstances, so long as your use otherwise complies with the Trademark Marking and Notice Section and the Form of Use sections of this Policy (other uses will be addressed on a case-by-case basis):

1. Descriptive Use without the necessity of a written agreement with Digium ("fair use"): Trademark law permits use of Word Marks (Trademarks in a word form for example "Digium", "Asterisk") for descriptive purposes without the necessity of a trademark license. This does not include Logos (for example the Asterisk Bubble), for which usage is only authorized by written agreement. For purposes of illustration, you may advertise that your company works on Asterisk platforms or to describe the goods or services that you sell/develop as long as the usage does not confuse the public into believe there is an affiliation between yourself and Digium or that you create Genuine Digium Software.


2. GPL Attribution: The Word Form (as described, below) of a Trademark may be used in documentation accompanying distribution of code under the GPL, to the extent necessary to comply with the requirements of the GPL regarding attribution and origin.


3. Industry Presentation, Reviews and Discussion: It is Digium's goal to advance dialogue in the IP telephony space. Accordingly, Digium freely allows the use of the Word Form of Trademarks in presentations and papers discussing Genuine Digium Products. All such uses should be careful, however, to use the Trademarks only in reference to Genuine Digium Products for which Digium uses that Trademark. We also ask that you follow the standards set out in the "Proper Form" section of this Policy.


4. Open Source Project References: Digium recognizes the value of the open source community, and is committed to keeping that community as a vibrant discussion and development area for the advancement of the ASTERISK technology. Digium views the vast majority of the open source projects as discussion and development areas for non-commercial purposes, which are not viewed by the commercial marketplace. Use of the Trademarks in the strictly limited context of open source project management and discussion will generally not be objected to by Digium, provided that you follow a few simple guidelines: (a) All use of the Trademarks should qualify as a nominative use (sometimes called a "fair use") (b) the Trademark should be used in a way that makes it clear that your project is a development effort related to the Digium source, but that the software you are working upon is not, in fact the Genuine Digium Software, (c) the Trademark must be used in a manner consistent with the Word Form standards described in item a of the Form of Use section of this Policy, and (d) there must be no suggestion that your project is approved, sponsored, or affiliated with Digium or its products. To assist you, consider the following non-exhaustive list of examples:

(a) A project is being developed to extend functionality with a voice mail program. Acceptable project titles would be VOICEMAIL FOR ASTERISK or VMAIL FOR ASTERISK. We would strongly discourage, and likely would consider to be problematic, a name such as ASTERMAIL;

(b) A project is being developed to create a GUI useful for Asterisk. An acceptable project title would be GUI FOR ASTERISK. We would strongly discourage, and likely would consider to be problematic, a term such as ASTERGUI.

(c) A project is being developed or sold that works with Asterisk and is described as being "Asterisk compatible."

(d) A project is being sold or developed which incorporates a version of Asterisk which has not been modified from the form in which it was distributed by Digium and is described as being "Powered by Asterisk" or "Based on Asterisk".

(e) A project is being sold or developed which was developed using portions of the Asterisk code, but has been modified from the form in which it was distributed by Digium and is described as being "developed from the Asterisk software" or "a modification of the Asterisk software."

Digium does, however, reserve the right to review all usage on project forums, and to object to any usage that appears to overstep the bounds of discussion and good-faith non-commercial development. In any event, once a project has left the open source project phase or otherwise become a commercial project, this policy does not authorize any use of the Trademarks in connection therewith.

Form of Use

This section does not expand any rights of use or grant permissions; rather, this section prescribes how the Trademarks should be displayed when used. It is Digium's policy to encourage the use of the Word Form of Trademarks, for the reasons we describe below.

When used properly, a Trademark must be presented only in the exact spelling used by Digium in Digium-distributed materials. The word may not be abbreviated, misspelled, telescoped with other words (i.e. made to have overlapping letters with other words, thus "microsoftware" would be a telescope of "Microsoft" and "Software"), run together with other words (such as "AsteriskServer"). We prefer that you use the marks in all capitals (e.g., ASTERISK), but you may use the Trademarks by capitalizing only the first letter or or capitalizing the Trademarks in the same fashion as Digium does. Other capitalization schemes are not allowed. Users of the Word Form of the Trademarks should take care to avoid using the Trademark in any manner that may be interpreted to be a logo by the public (such as with a stylized typeface for formatting), because the use of the Trademarks in logos of Digium is strictly limited to those licensed under the Digium Partner Program. Use of logos other than as approved by Digium are not allowed. Therefore, to ensure your use is in compliance with the Policy, you are encouraged to use only the "Word Form" (which means use of the words only, in a standard Arial font, without a design or stylization element) to avoid any use that may look like a logo.

Trademark Marking and Notice

Whenever a Trademark is used, attribution should be provided to Digium, and the presentation of the Trademark should make it clear that the term is a trademark. Proper use under this standard will include:

Registration Notice. The use of the ® for the federally registered marks ASTERISK and DIGIUM. (E.g., you should present the mark as ASTERISK® and DIGIUM®). Where the Trademark is used a number of times in one display or printed item and it would be unduly burdensome or distracting to use the ® in each and every appearance of the Trademark, it is sufficient to limit use of the ® symbol to only

(a) the first appearance of the Trademark in the material, and

(b) the most prominent appearance of the Trademark in the material.

It is also acceptable to omit the ® in path names and in any distribution in a jurisdiction in which the mark is not registered. For distributions in jurisdictions where a term other than the ® is provided by law, the appropriate marking may be used in lieu of ®.

Attribution. The fact that the Trademarks are owned by Digium should be clearly stated. This may be done by placing in a footer a notice, such as "[name the Trademark] is a trademark of Digium, Inc." Where a footer is not appropriate, such as for use in pathnames and for presentations within operational software displays, the attribution may be placed in product documentation and README files.

General

This Policy may be withdrawn, superseded, replaced, revised, or overridden by Digium at any time. In addition to general actions taken by Digium with respect to this Policy that are generally applicable, Digium reserves the right to make special accommodations to persons for use of the Trademarks, and to place special conditions on the use of the Trademarks by others, recognizing that each person's placement in the market and circumstances may be different. In the event you are specifically notified by Digium of objection to your use, or that Digium does not consider this Policy to apply to you, you may not rely upon this Policy or any subsequent version of this Policy.

Digium reserves all rights not specifically granted by this policy. With effect superior to and controlling over any other content of this Policy, no provision of this Policy shall be interpreted to allow any person to use any of the Trademarks to suggest that they are affiliated with or approved by Digium, or that they are an authorized provider of services in connection with goods or services offered under the Trademarks by Digium.

The "Digium Partner Program" is a licensing program separate from this Policy under which Digium may license certain rights to use specific Logo Forms of the Trademarks in conjunction with the approved commercial activities of companies that participate in the Digium Partner Program. Only Digium may grant permission for a third party to use a Digium Partner Program logo. This Policy does not allow any such use. The Digium web site provides information for parties interested in participating in the Digium Partner Program.

Reservation and Conditions

TO THE EXTENT, IF ANY, THAT THE TRADEMARKS ARE PERMITTED TO BE USED UNDER THIS POLICY, THE TRADEMARKS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTIES, INCLUDING (WITHOUT LIMITATION) ANY WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS.

Digium reserves the right to revoke any and all permissions and consents at any time in its sole discretion in any manner of notice. If Digium notifies you that your use of any Trademark is detrimental to any Digium trademarks or is otherwise unacceptable, you must immediately cease using the Trademark, and may not use the Trademarks as described in this Policy.