Mozilla Trademark Policy FAQ
- What's the purpose of this document?
- This document sets out to answer the common questions which arise about the use of the Mozilla Trademarks and Logos. Our code is free, but we do strictly enforce our trademark rights, we must, in order to keep them valid. This means that, while you have considerable freedom to redistribute and modify our software, there are tight restrictions on your ability to use the Mozilla name and logos, even when built into binaries that we provide.
- What are the Mozilla Trademarks and Logos?
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The Mozilla trademarks are listed in the policy document.
The default logos in CVS which are built into Firefox and Thunderbird by default (i.e. the globe without the fox, and the original blue bird) are explicitly not protected as Mozilla trademarks. The files themselves are available under the mozilla.org tri-license; you can do anything you like with them under those terms.
(The cute green dinosaur is not a Mozilla Foundation trademark either; its legal status is unclear, and we are moving away from using it.)
- What about "Gecko"?
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Gecko® is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape/AOL has licensed the trademark to the Foundation for use in describing our layout engine.
- Can I distribute any of the Mozilla software from my website, by CD, or to my friends, employees or students?
If you are redistributing unchanged official stable binaries downloaded from mozilla.org, to anyone in any way and for any purpose, no further permissions are required from us. We request that you distribute the latest stable version (and of course, we believe that it's in your best interest to do so as well). The notification requirements of the MPL have been met for our binaries, so although it's a good idea, you are not required to ship source code.
If you want to distribute one of our products and this answer does not apply to you, please say so explicitly in your trademark use request, because otherwise you'll just get pointed at this FAQ entry :-)
- Can I download one copy and install it on lots of machines in my company/school/university/pizzeria?
- Sure. Our products are Free software, both as in speech and as in beer, and there are no fees or notification requirements. If you plan to reconfigure it and then sell the machines, we do have a policy about that.
- Can I put Firefox or Thunderbird banners on my website? Can I link to you?
- Thanks for your support :-) Of course you may. We have button programs for exactly this:
- What about use of screenshots etc.?
- Approval is not required for the following fair uses of the Mozilla marks:
- screenshots of our software or our web site in magazine articles or reviews of our software
- the inclusion of Mozilla browser windows in screenshots of other web sites for non-commercial uses such as web site reviews
- on-screen displays of Mozilla products in television programs or movies.
- Can I have high-resolution copies of the logos?
- In general, no, sorry. If you have a very good reason, e.g. you are a print publication wanting to feature Firefox on the cover, contact the Visual Identity Team.
- Can I make a t-shirt/desktop wallpaper/baseball cap with the logo on?
Sure, if it's just for you, or if it's for others and no money or other consideration changes hands (although see the question about high-res versions). The Mozilla Foundation owns and operates the Mozilla Store which sells a wide range of CDs, Guidebooks, T-shirts, and products with Mozilla software and logos.
- Can I modify your logos and distribute the result?
- No, sorry. The logo files themselves (e.g. the ones distributed with the apps) are copyrighted, and so making and distributing any derivative works would be a copyright infringement. The logo's also a trademark, and so if the result is confusingly similar to the original, it's a violation of trademark law too.
- The logos themselves are the trademark, but the actual logo files are in the domain of copyright. You could release the files under an open source license while maintaining trademark rights. Why don't you do that?
- Because it would gain nothing, and lead to far more infringing uses of our marks. In practice, there is no use for the files except as expressions of our trademarks, so the rights associated with an open source license don't add anything.
- Doesn't having trademark restrictions contravene the principles of free software?
- No. Many free software licenses explicitly exclude rights to trademarks, and so trademark restrictions on otherwise free software is accepted by the community. We are using our trademarks as a mark of quality to protect consumers - we think this is very much within the principles of free software.
- Isn't having the logo files under a different license incompatible with the GPL?
- First off, the Mozilla Foundation binaries are distributed under MPL terms, so this question doesn't arise in practice.
But, even if it did, we don't believe it's incompatible with the GPL anyway. We are following the interpretation that the logo files are not part of the program itself (e.g., the Firefox browser), they are simply data used by that program, and changing the logo data has absolutely no effect on the functional use of the program. We therefore believe that licensing of the logo files themselves is outside the scope of any GPL terms that might be applied to other Mozilla source files (i.e., under the Mozilla tri-license).
This position is consistent with comments on the FSF web site regarding GPL compatibility of a particular font license; see the entry in the FSF's GPL-incompatible license list regarding the Arphic Public License. However in the GPL FAQ the FSF does not address this issue explicitly.
If your question isn't covered here, time to move on to one of the other Trademark Policy documents.