# Trade marks

"hushgate" and the hushgate logo and banner are unregistered trade marks of
Johan Becker. They are **not** licensed to you.

The [Business Source License 1.1](LICENSE) that covers this repository grants
you rights in the **code**. It grants no rights in the name or the logo — the
licence says so itself, in the Terms: *"This License does not grant you any
right in any trademark or logo of Licensor or its affiliates (provided that you
may use a trademark or logo of Licensor as expressly required by this
License)."* This file explains what that means in practice, so that nobody has
to guess.

## What you may do

Nominative use — naming the project in order to refer to it truthfully — is
fine and needs no permission:

- "uses hushgate", "built on hushgate", "compatible with hushgate";
- "a fork of hushgate", "based on hushgate";
- writing about hushgate: articles, talks, benchmarks, comparisons, tutorials,
  including critical ones;
- keeping the name in file paths, imports, configuration keys and the
  `hushgate` command inside a fork you use privately or contribute back from.

## What you may not do

Anything that presents your thing as being the project, or as endorsed by it:

- publishing a fork, distribution, hosted service, appliance or commercial
  product **under the name** "hushgate", or under a name confusingly similar to
  it (hushgate.io, HushGate Pro, hushgate-cloud, Hushgateway, and so on);
- using the logo or banner as the mark of your own product, or in a way that
  suggests an official relationship;
- registering a domain, npm package, PyPI package, crates.io name, Docker Hub
  namespace, GitHub organisation, app-store listing or social media handle that
  presents itself as the official project or its official channel;
- using the name in advertising, a company name, or a product name in a way
  that implies sponsorship, affiliation or certification.

If you fork and publish, give it your own name. Saying "X, a fork of hushgate"
underneath your own name is exactly right.

## Asking

If you want to use the name in a way that is not listed as permitted above, ask
first — a short mail is usually enough, and the answer is often yes:

**jo_becker@mailbox.org**

## Note

This file records a claim to unregistered rights arising from use. It does not
by itself create a registered trade mark, and it is not legal advice.

Copyright © 2026 Johan Becker.