Trademark Policy

1. What this policy covers

• The word mark “Pier” (including stylized forms such as [ PIER ]).
• The Pier logo and any future Pier logos.
• Names and logos that are confusingly similar to the above.

Status. “Pier” is currently an unregistered (common-law) trademark, with registration in progress. We use the ™ symbol; we will use ® only in jurisdictions where and when a registration is actually granted. Owner: Aleksandr Litvinenko / devcom.app. Questions: [email protected].

2. The guiding principle

Use of the Pier name and logo that does not create confusion about the source of a product, and does not imply official endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship, is generally welcome. Use that could make people think your product, service, or modified version is the official Pier — or is endorsed by us — needs our written permission.

3. Uses that do not need permission

You may freely, without asking us:

• Run Pier — modified or not — for yourself, your company, or your customers.
• Say your service or product is “powered by Pier”, “running on Pier”, or “deployed with Pier”.
• Use the name referentially (nominative use) — to truthfully discuss, review, compare, teach, or write documentation and tutorials about Pier, or to state that your software is “compatible with Pier”.
• Redistribute the unmodified Pier binary or source under the name “Pier” (the AGPL already grants the code rights, and keeping the name on an unmodified build creates no confusion).
• Run community user groups, meetups, and non-commercial content about Pier, as long as you do not imply you are the official project and you follow the logo guidelines below.

4. Uses that need our permission (or a separate license)

Please contact us first for any of these:

• Offering a hosted or managed service branded as “Pier” — i.e. selling “Pier” or “Pier-as-a-Service” as a commercial product. (Running Pier for your customers is fine; selling it under the Pier brand is what needs a license.)
• Distributing a modified version still called “Pier” (see §5).
• Using “Pier” (or a confusingly similar term) in the name of your company, product, app, domain, or social account in a way that suggests it is official.
• Merchandise (t-shirts, stickers, etc.) using the Pier name or logo.
• Any use of an altered Pier logo, or use of the logo as your own product or app icon.

5. Forks and modified versions

The AGPL gives you the right to fork and modify Pier. The trademark means a fork must not present itself as Pier:

• Choose a different name for a modified version that you publish to others. (This is the same approach taken by Mozilla/Firefox and by Chromium-based browsers.)
• You may factually describe your project as “based on Pier” or “a fork of Pier” — that is nominative use and is fine.
• You may not name your fork “Pier” or “Pier <something>”, or use the Pier logo, in a way that implies it is the official project.

This keeps two things separate: the AGPL ensures modified code stays open; the trademark ensures modified builds don't travel under our name.

6. Logo usage guidelines

When you use a Pier logo under the permitted uses above:

• Don't modify, recolor, stretch, rotate, or crop it.
• Keep reasonable clear space around it; don't crowd it with other logos.
• Don't use it as the icon or logo of your own app, product, or company.
• Don't use it in any way that implies endorsement or partnership.

7. Relationship to the AGPL and the CLA

• The AGPL-3.0 licenses the code, not the trademark. The (A)GPL expressly reserves trademark rights — see section 7(e) of the license text, which permits “declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some trade names, trademarks, or service marks.” Receiving Pier under the AGPL therefore gives you no rights to the Pier name or logo.
• Contributions to Pier are made under our Individual CLA or Corporate CLA, which let the project offer Pier under dual licensing, including commercial licenses.
• A commercial license (use Pier without AGPL obligations) and a trademark license (use the Pier brand for a commercial offering) are both available — see below.

8. Requesting permission or a license

Email [email protected]. Tell us who you are and how you would like to use the Pier name or logo, and we will work with you.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the project grows. The canonical version always lives at TRADEMARK.md in the Pier repository.