Blender has been registered as a trademark by Blender Foundation in the USA and EU. It has been used by Blender Foundation since 2002, and it’s a well recognized brand. Although the name “Blender” is a generic word (for a mixer), in the context of products or company names related to software it’s protected by trademark law.
In short – if you want to start a company or website related to Blender services, avoid using the name Blender in it. You can use it as a secondary tagline though – such as “Awesome Company Inc., the Blender specialists”. Same goes for forks of the Blender software, give it a new name and create a unique brand that way. The latter is also enforced by the GNU GPL, which explicitly excludes brand names from the freedom.
Some exceptions might apply, for example for free accessible community sites or websites that already exist for many years.
This document –inspired by the Mozilla and WordPress trademark policies– has the goal to:
- Make it easy for anyone to use the Blender name or logo for community-oriented efforts that help spread and improve Blender.
- Make it clear how Blender-related businesses and projects can (and cannot) use the Blender name and logo.
- Make it hard for anyone to use the Blender name and logo to unfairly profit from, trick or confuse people who are looking for official Blender resources.
Blender Foundation Trademark Usage Policy
You may do the following without receiving specific permission from Blender Foundation:
- Use the Blender wordmark (the “Blender” name) in text to truthfully refer to and/or link to unmodified Blender programs, products, services and technologies.
- Use Blender logos in visuals to truthfully refer to and/or to link to the applicable programs, products, services and technologies hosted on Blender servers.
- Describe a Blender add-on without suggesting that the add-on is actually published by, affiliated with or endorsed by Blender Foundation
- Use the Blender wordmark to explain that your software is based on Blender’s open source code, or is compatible with Blender’s software
- Describe a social media account, page, or community, provided that their name or handle does not begin with Blender. In addition, Blender logos cannot be used in a way that might suggest affiliation with Blender, including, but not limited to, the account, profile, or header images. The only exception to these requirements is if you’ve received prior permission from Blender Foundation.
All other uses of the Blender trademark require our prior written permission. This includes any use of the Blender trademark in a domain name. To keep the Blender brand clearly identifiable, please do not do the following:
- Don’t use the Blender trademark (name or logo) in the name of your business, product, service, app, domain name, publication, or other offering.
- Don’t use marks, logos, company names, slogans, domain names, or designs that are confusingly similar to Blender trademarks.
- Don’t use the Blender trademark in a way that incorrectly implies affiliation with, or sponsorship, endorsement, or approval by Blender Foundation of your products or services.
- Don’t display the Blender trademark more prominently than your product, service, or company name.
- Don’t use the Blender trademark on merchandise for sale (e.g., selling t-shirts, mugs, etc.)
- Don’t use the Blender trademark for any other form of commercial use (e.g. offering technical support services), unless such use is limited to a truthful and descriptive reference (e.g. “Independent technical support for Blender”).
- Don’t modify Blender’s trademark, abbreviate it, or combine them with any other symbols, words, or images, or incorporate it into a tagline or slogan.
Please note that it is not the goal of this policy to limit commercial activity around Blender. We encourage Blender-based businesses, and many of them are thriving while in compliance with this policy (Superhive, CGCookie, and Creative Shrimp are a few examples).
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to drop us a message at [email protected].