Sun - Sun Trademark and Logo Usage Requirements

Sun trademarks are intellectual property, with value both to us at Sun and to our community of customers, developers, partners, and supporters. When our trademarks maintain their strong association with quality and compatibility, the entire community benefits.

Trademarks are words or symbols (and less commonly colors, sounds or scents) used to identify the source of products, technologies, programs and services, enabling customers to distinguish one provider's offerings from another's. When we say "products" in these guidelines, we mean all types of offerings, ranging from commercial products and services to open source and free software and informational web sites. Trademark law protects the public's ability to rely on trademarks for information about product source and quality, requiring trademark owners to take steps to police proper use of their marks We provide these Sun Trademark and Logo Usage Requirements ("guidelines") as part of a comprehensive program to satisfy this obligation, and to help you and all of our community members make proper use of our marks consistent with these guidelines and the law.

These guidelines are for anyone using or referencing Sun's trademarks, particularly users outside of Sun. For additional resources, Sun employees should click here.

Overview of Trademark Law

We are providing a general overview of trademark law to help you understand the guiding principles and goals of these guidelines. This summary and the guidelines are not legal advice.

What does trademark law protect? Trademark law protects the public's ability to rely on trademarks for information about the source and quality of products, services, programs and technologies. To protect the public from misleading or confusing information, the law requires trademark owners to monitor proper use of their marks and to "police" against use of identical or closely similar marks for similar goods, services, programs or technologies. Trademarks are compared based on similarities or differences in sight (visual appearance), sound, and meaning, as well as other factors such as whether the products are related. A mark that looks similar, sounds similar, or has a similar meaning to an established mark and that is used on similar products might be an infringement.

Not all uses of a trademark result in potential confusion. Sun allows and even encourages many "fair uses" of its trademarks.

What is a service mark? A "service mark" is a trademark that indicates the source of a service or program, rather than a product. For example, Java is a trademark when it identifies a software product, while JavaOne is a service mark because it identifies the conference, which is a service. In these guidelines, we use the term "trademark" to refer to both trademarks and service marks. Many trademarks, like Java, apply to a wide spectrum of offerings, including both products and services, from the same source.

What is trade dress? "Trade dress" describes a collection of attributes or features of a product or service (often its overall presentation) and/or its packaging. Trade dress can include color palettes, patterns and textures of material or packaging, or other thematic elements that collectively indicate the source of the product or service to the public.

What is a fair use? Referring to someone else's trademark in a way that does not confuse the public or tarnish the mark may qualify as "fair use." Examples include discussions of a product by name in a news article, product review, or comparative advertising. To make a "fair use," you must accurately identify the original product or service without misleading the public about its source or its affiliation with your own products or services. Using someone else's trademark as the name of your own product or service (including freeware or free information services) is never fair use. U.S. law does not recognize any fair use of logos. If you want to use one of our logos, you will need a permission or license. Most of our logos are available from http://logos.sun.com.

How do owners establish trademark rights? In the U.S. and some other countries that recognize "common law" rights, an owner can establish trademark rights simply by using a mark in connection with products or services. (No rights will be established if the mark infringes an existing, or senior, mark.) Outside the U.S., most countries require a user to register trademarks with the national trademark office (a government agency), before rights are recognized.

What is an infringement? Infringement occurs when someone (the "junior user") uses a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar to an existing trademark (the "senior trademark") owned by a senior user, on similar goods, services, products or technologies without permission or a license from the senior user. Courts use many factors to evaluate the likelihood that the public would be confused about the source of either trademark user's products or the relationship between the two trademark owners. The infringement can be intentional, e.g., when the junior user is counterfeiting goods, or inadvertent, e.g., when the junior user is trying to make fair use, but doesn't satisfy all the legal requirements.

What is required for a trademark license? A trademark owner may license the use of a trademark to other companies or individuals for use on their own products. The license agreement must allow the trademark owner the right to control the quality of the licensee's products by setting and enforcing quality standards.

How can you trademark words in the dictionary? It all depends on how close the trademark owner's products are to the dictionary definition. For example, apples (the fruit) do not have anything to do with computers, so Apple is a distinctive, strong mark for computer products and services, identifying one unique source of those products and services. The mark Apple would be a little less strong, but still protectable for the hypothetical company, Apple Healthcare because there is a logical association between apples and health (the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"). Since the word "apple" does not directly describe health care services, it can still identify one unique source of those services. No fruit grower, however, could claim exclusive trademark rights in the name "apple" for its fruit. "Apple" is a generic term in that industry and is not protectable as a trademark. It does not identify any unique source of the fruit. For this reason, no one apple grower can trademark the word "apple" and prevent competitors and other members of the industry from using it in their company and product names.

Overview of Sun's Trademark Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines in making use of our marks. A list of our trademarks can be found at http://www.sun.com/suntrademarks.

Trademarks are adjectives. Use them, at least in your initial and most prominent references and otherwise as needed for clarity, with generic nouns that identify a Sun product, technology, program, or service. For example, use "Java technology" or "the Solaris operating system" instead of using "Java" or "Solaris" on its own.

Sun trademarks cannot be included in the name of any third party product, technology, program or service. This includes free and educational materials, open source distributions, and the titles of informational web sites. Have fun and come up with a creative new name for your product!

Mark and attribute Sun trademarks. When making fair use of Sun trademarks, mark and attribute them as outlined in these Guidelines.

You may only use Sun logos by permission. To find out more about Sun's logo programs and to apply for a license, visit http://logos.sun.com.

Keeping Sun trademarks strong helps our entire community. Please let us know if you see our trademarks used in a way that does not conform to these guidelines. For Sun's privacy notice, click here.

Naming and Presentation of Products and Services
Including FreeWare, Open Source and Websites

Trademark law applies equally to commercial products and services and to offerings that are free, not for profit, educational, or purely informational. Including a Sun trademark in the name of a product or service not from Sun can confuse consumers and violate the law. The following guidelines explain in greater detail when and how you can use Sun trademarks in relation to your products.

Sight, Sound, and Meaning: Trademark protection extends to its sight, sound and meaning. Do not adopt a trademark that has a similar look, sound, or meaning to a Sun trademark.

DO come up with a unique and compelling name for your product, or simply choose a purely descriptive name. It's always a good idea to get an independent legal opinion about the availability of the name you choose.

DO NOT adopt similar looking, sounding, or meaning trademarks, such as a) a logo of a steaming coffee cup because it looks similar to the Java logo or b) "Metra" because it sounds like Netra.

Descriptions of Your Products: You may use a separate, explanatory phrase or tagline after your product name that describes how your product ("product" here and throughout the guidelines includes services, technologies and programs, as well as freeware, open source distributions and websites) relates to one of Sun's. When you do so, be sure that a) the source of each product is clear, b) the statement is accurate and not misleading, c) the Sun trademark is used less prominently than your trademark, d) you use the Sun trademark as an adjective followed by a generic noun, and e) you follow the marking and attribution rules set forth in these guidelines.

DO include a Sun trademark to describe how your product or service relates to a Sun product or service, as in "Acme Software for the Java™ platform" or "Acme Implementation service for the Solaris™ operating system."

DO NOT include a Sun trademark in the name of your product or service, as in "Acme Java Software" or "Acme Solaris Implementation."

DO include a tagline after the title to explain your web site's relevance to Sun products or services, as in "Acme Programming Guide, a resource for Java™ developers." or "Acme Guide to the Java™ Programming Language."

DO NOT include a Sun trademark in the title of your web site, as in "Acme Java Guide."

Marking: When you use one of our trademarks, properly mark and attribute it to help minimize the risk of consumer confusion. On each document incorporating one of our marks, place the ™ symbol directly following our mark the first time the mark is used prominently (as in a headline, title, or graphic), and the first time it is used in plain text. Do not use the circle-R symbol (®) when marking Sun trademarks. It has a specific meaning that is not always appropriate.

DO properly mark Sun trademarks, as in "Acme™ Security Software, Solaris™ edition."

DO NOT claim rights in the whole phrase that includes a Sun trademark, as in "Acme Security Software, Solaris edition™."

Attribution Notice/Legal Notice: Unless you have an agreement with Sun that says something else, attribute our trademarks using the following notice: "Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo [insert all other Sun trademarks referenced in the document] are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries."

DO include a notice on a single page, linked from all pages that contain Sun trademarks (such as with a a "legal" or "trademarks" link in the footer) if you are working on the web. For printed materials, place the notice in an appropriate location with other legal notices (e.g., on the title page of a book, in the footnotes of a white paper, on the last slide of a presentation, etc.).

DO NOT rely on a web footer link to provide attribution for downloadable documents and software downloads that are posted on that site. Because they will ultimately be viewed separately from that attribution, they must contain their own notice.

Trade Dress: Sun trade dress may not be used by third parties for their own products or web sites. Take care to ensure that your product line, packaging, advertising or web site does not adopt a look that is confusingly similar to any of Sun's.

Code Names: Code names are popular in the software industry, to allow development teams to refer to their project before an official name is selected. Public use of code names can infringe the rights of a trademark owner if the code name includes another's trademarks. Increasingly, code names are used publicly on community software development efforts or in early access versions for testing. To be safe, avoid inclusion of other company's trademarks in your code names.

Sun employees should click here for additional resources.

Open Source Software: Sun distributes a wide variety of open source software, allowing users and developers significant freedom in using, modifying, and redistributing the software. Open source software is distributed under a copyright license and in some cases patent rights are also licensed. We are not aware of any OSI approved license that includes a license of trademark rights. Do not assume you can use the name of a source code base in the name of your distribution developed from that code base. You may not incorporate Sun trademarks when naming your distributions or other products that incorporate open source elements. Truthful statements are generally allowed (e.g., in the format "MyImplementation, derived from Trademarked ProductNameTM"), but you should check the terms of the license for the original source code.

DO refer to the specific terms of the license the open source software is distributed under to determine what, if any, trademark rights you have.

DO NOT include a Sun trademark in the name of your distribution of an open source software product or distribution.

Use of Sun Logos

Third parties may not use any Sun logo for any purpose without a license to do so. This includes all Java logos, the Sun Microsystems corporate logo, and all other product and program logos.

Sun offers several programs that allow you to apply for a permission or license to use certain logos. For example, we have logos that indicate technological compatibility, conformance to specific requirements, membership in programs, alliances with Sun, and so on. Each is available for your use upon acceptance of your application.

If you are granted a license to use a Sun logo, you are provided with artwork, which you may not modify in any way, other than sizing it to fit appropriately in context. Unless your license specifically allows you to do so, you may not combine a Sun logo with other logos or artwork, or replace or remove a Sun logo from a product for resale.

To find out more about logo programs and to apply for a license, visit http://logos.sun.com.

Special Issues On The Web

Web Sites Are Services: Trademark law considers all web sites to be services – from e-commerce, to community sites, to blogs and personal home pages. The name you adopt for your your site is a trademark, regardless of whether the site is educational, free, non-commercial, or purely informational. Do not incorporate a Sun trademark into the name of your site.

Trademark Symbols on the Web: When using Sun trademarks on the web, you should follow your standard practice with respect to marking and attribution. If you mark or attribute any other third party trademarks, please do the same for Sun's. To generate the ™ character in HTML code, use ASCII character code 153 (™).

Domain Names, Registration and Use: So long as the web site adheres to the rest of these guidelines, use of a Sun trademark in a domain name is permitted with the following restrictions:

DO use a Sun trademark by itself as a file, folder, or path name, as in www.acme.com/Java or www.acme.com/Solaris.html.

DO NOT use a Sun trademark by itself in either the domain or host name, as in www.netra.com or solaris.acme.com.

DO register the domain under your own name, or the name of a business entity that conforms to these guidelines.

DO NOT register the domain name using the domain name itself as the registrant name (see the following example).

DO refer to the domain name in your materials as an address or location on the web, as in plain text reading "Learn more about Acme Corp. by visiting www.acmejava.com."

DO NOT use the domain name as a name or title for the web site itself. For example, do not create headers or title graphics or include the domain name by itself, or text such as "Welcome to AcmeJava.com."

DO include a legal notice containing the following text: "[Insert Sun trademark] is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. [Insert web site owner name] is independent of Sun Microsystems, Inc."

DO NOT register the domain name as a trademark with the U.S. Trademark Office or otherwise attempt to claim rights in the name, by presenting it with a ™ symbol.

Blogs and other Informal Content: We understand and embrace the fact that a variety of content on the Internet is informal, and that strict adherence to all of these guidelines may be inappropriate. If you operate an informal web site service such as a blog, you can use a conversational tone, in which you may not always use nouns or trademark symbols with Sun marks, and so on. To take advantage of this exception, please make sure that your site adheres to the rest of these guidelines.

YouTube, MySpace, and other User-Contributed Content: You are responsible for content you submit to YouTube, MySpace, SecondLife, wikis, forums, and other user-contribution sites. If you create content for any online source, make sure that your use of Sun trademarks is consistent with these guidelines. Administrators of such sites are responsible for removing infringing content once it is identified. Making certain your content only makes appropriate use of Sun trademarks can help prevent it from being removed.

DO include truthful and accurate representations of Sun trademarks (such as a video clip that shows a Sun logo on a genuine Sun workstation).

DO NOT include mock or parody products in your content with names based on Sun trademarks.

Special Rules for Publications, User Groups, and Conferences

As a technological innovator, Sun encourages and expects the community of developers, businesses, and other innovators to seek out and share information about Sun technologies. Sun's trademarks will often be a natural part of these discussions. To facilitate this dialog, under the following circumstances, Sun word marks may be used in the titles of publications, user groups, and conferences. Please use word marks, e.g., Solaris, only. Please do not use our font, stylization or logos.

No Proprietary Names. Please do not incorporate other proprietary or commercial names in titles of publications, user groups or conferences that incorporate Sun trademarks. For example, do not use titles in the format, such as XYZCorp Solaris Journal, Acme Java User Group or ABCCo Sun Conference.

Follow All Other Rules: The exceptions for naming publications, user groups and conferences is only available if the rest of these guidelines are followed, including marking with symbols, attribution and use of nouns.

Publications: When using Sun word marks in naming publications,such as books or magazines, it is important that you do not create confusion as to source of your publication or any affiliation with Sun. The publisher's name should appear prominently in a location that is customary in the publishing industry. Magazines including a Sun trademark in the title should also include a generic term such as "magazine" or "journal," separated by a space. It is not necessary to include an extra noun that identifies the Sun product (e.g., "Java Magazine" is acceptable; it is not necessary to say "Java Platform Magazine").

DO include a customary identification of the non-Sun source of your materials. For example, books typically include publisher information and logos on the spine and title page, which may be less physically prominent than the title.

DO NOT attempt to claim trademark rights in the whole name of your publication by marking it with a trademark symbol or applying for registration with a trademark office.

DO include the customary attribution of Sun's trademark rights in an appropriate location.

User Groups. Using a term in the name such as "user group," "special interest group," "lobby," etc., makes clear the relationship between Sun and the group, and does not create confusion about the source of products. It is a fair use. In user group names, it is not necessary to include an extra noun that identifies the Sun product (e.g., "Java User Group" is acceptable; it is not necessary to say "Java Technology User Group"). It is also not necessary to use a space between Java and the generic term identifying the group (i.e., "JavaUserGroup" is acceptable). These exceptions apply only to user groups that are not formally doing business as commercial entities. If you are administering a user group that includes a Sun trademark in its name:

DO NOT claim any trademark rights in the name or attempt to register the name or your logo with a trademark office;

DO NOT register the name as a trade name or business name, or conduct any business under the name (e.g., do not register domain names under your user name).

Conferences: When using Sun word marks in naming conferences, it is important to make sure not to create confusion as to source or affiliation. The Sun mark must not appear more prominently than the name of the conference producer, promoter or sponsor, and must refer to a Sun product.

DO use the Sun mark to identify a Sun product, as in "Acme Expo on Java™ Technology."

DO NOT use the Sun mark to identify your product or service, as in "Acme Java Expo," "Java Expo by Acme" or simply "Java Expo."

DO include a customary identification of the non-Sun source of your materials. Identify the publisher, promoter or sponsor prominently in appropriate locations.

DO NOT combine the Sun mark with any other words in your title, as in "JavaTech" or "SolarisExpo," or attempt to claim trademark rights in the whole name by marking it with a trademark symbol or applying for registration with a trademark office.

Merchandise: Sun does not object to parties whose names include a Sun trademark as authorized by these guidelines producing limited runs of merchandise bearing their names under some circumstances. You may include your name on T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads or other promotional items, so long as you do not make more than 200 units, or offer products for commercial sale.

Contacting Sun's Trademark and Marketing Legal Department

Trademark and Marketing Legal Department
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
10 Network Circle
Mail Stop: UMPK10-146
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Send Trademark Feedback

Sun Trademark and Logo Usage Requirements Version 4.0, April 2007

Introduction