Preface

This document details the policy of Palo Alto Research Center Inc (“PARC®”) regarding use of its CCNx™ trademark.

PARC trademarks governed by this policy document include the mark CCNx.  As PARC registers other related marks, it will update this policy. Nothing contained on this site should be construed as granting any license or right to use any other trademark displayed on this site (e.g. PARC and the PARC Logo, both of which are registered trademarks of PARC).

The CCNx trademarks are symbols of the quality and community support associated with the CCNx protocol. To ensure that the CCNx marks continue to serve those functions, PARC must control their use in association with software and related services, while simultaneously allowing community members and others to accurately describe their relation to the CCNx Project. PARC wants to ensure that the use of these marks will not lead to confusion with other marks and, as a U.S. based corporation, PARC has a legal responsibility to set guidelines for the use of its marks.

General Guidelines For Use of the CCNx Trademarks for Written Material

PARC encourages the use of CCNx trademarks in marketing and other publicity-related materials, communicating that a person or organization is marketing or selling products using the CCNx protocol. While we encourage you to use the CCNx mark, it is important that any third party use follows trademark law so PARC may maintain the integrity of the mark. Therefore, all third party use should be non-confusing; customers and users should at all times know whom they are dealing with. As a result, it’s not permitted to say, for example, that money is being raised for the CCNx Project when in fact it is not, or to suggest that the book you’re marketing is official CCNx Protocol literature when it’s not. In short, you may not represent yourself as "official", "exclusive", “franchised", or the like by PARC or the CCNx project. Moreover, outside the confines of fair use of trademarks, the marks whose use is governed by this policy should not show PARC or the CCNx project in a false or derogatory light, or to make factually incorrect statements.

By using a trademark whose use is governed by this policy, you acknowledge that PARC is the sole owner of the trademarks and promise that you will not interfere with the trademark rights of PARC, including challenging PARC's use of, registration of, or application to register such trademarks, alone or in combination with other words, anywhere in the world, and that you will not harm, misuse, or bring in disrepute any of the trademarks in question.

Any use of the CCNx trademark should abide by the following basic guidelines:

• Form – The CCNx trademark should be used in the exact form in which it is presented on this webpage. No manipulations are allowed unless this has been expressly set forth in writing. The first three letters (“CCN”) should be written in capital form, the final letter (“x”) should not.
• Trademark Credit - The most prominent mention of the CCNx trademark (usually the first mention) should be accompanied by a symbol indicating that the mark is a trademark (“™”)
• Notice - The following notice should appear in a trademark credit line: "CCNx™ is a trademark of Palo Alto Research Center Inc.".
• Always use the CCNx mark as you would use a proper adjective with a generic noun (e.g. “the CCNx Protocol” or “CCNx Software”).
• Don’t use CCNx as a verb (e.g. CCNx it), as a noun or in the possessive or plural form (e.g. CCNx’s)
• Don’t combine CCNx with another company’s trademark/product name

CCNx Code Distribution

Unmodified versions of the official CCNx software

Since the CCNx open source software is released under GPL and LGPL open source licenses, you are free to distribute the code to anyone. However, in order to ensure that the CCNx marks are consistently associated with a high standard of quality, you may only distribute it under the CCNx trademarks if you are distributing unmodified versions. Hence, you must not make any edits to the code, including removing CCNx trademarks, before distributing it as CCNx software.  You are free to produce independent implementations of the documented CCNx protocol(s), which should be described as “implementing the CCNx Protocol” (or “implementing CCNx Protocol Y”), not as the CCNx software itself.

Modifications or derivative works

If you make modifications to the CCNx software, the resulting code cannot be distributed under the CCNx trademark, without the express written permission of PARC. To avoid confusion with the official CCNx releases, the name of executables and libraries should also be changed.

Related Software

PARC encourages the software developer community to build products that take advantage of the capabilities and advantages of the CCNx protocol(s) and software. As such, PARC believes that it is important for developers to be able to distribute and market these products, and to make truthful statements about the degree to which they are compatible with the CCNx protocol(s) and software. However, since most of these products will not be officially approved by PARC it is important that users and customers will not be confused about their source. To make sure that this will not be a concern, PARC requests that any reference to CCNx and other marks in the name or marketing materials of such a product is made in a way that does not suggest an affiliation between the source of the product and the CCNx Project.

Domain Names

Registering domain names that include the CCNx mark runs the risk of violating the overarching requirement of avoiding confusing the consuming public. Specifically, if the domain name in question is registered and used in connection with networking technology, the risk of confusion is obvious. As a result, PARC cannot condone registration of such domain names by third parties.

Related Services and Products

Factually correct statements about the kind of service or product (e.g. guidebooks or articles) you provide are always allowed, as long as they do not violate the overarching requirement of avoiding consumer confusion regarding the origin of the service. As such, any marketing material or name of the product or service must comply with the guidelines put forth above relating to written material. A simple clarifying guideline is to avoid using the CCNx mark first in a set of descriptive terms for the service or product (e.g. say “Configuration Services for CCNx™”  not “CCNx™ Configuration Services”; say “Jorge’s CCNx™ Guide”  instead of “CCNx™ Guide”).

Linking

PARC encourages linking to CCNx.org and related sites for updated information, facilitating download of the most recent release of CCNx material, etc. Any such linking is subject to the overarching requirement to avoid confusion as set forth above.

Contact – Report of Unauthorized Use of Trademark

If you discover any unauthorized use of the CCNx trademark, online or otherwise, please report this to us using one of the administrative contact methods on the notification page.