Nextcloud Trademark Guidelines

With these Guidelines, we wish to encourage widespread use of the Nextcloud trademarks by the Nextcloud community while managing that use to protect the distinctive value of the trademarks and avoid confusion on the part of Nextcloud users and the general public. The sections that follow describe the Nextcloud Marks covered by these Guidelines, as well as uses of these Marks that are allowed, uses that are not allowed, and uses that are only allowed with specific permission. See Contact Information below to request permission.

The Nextcloud Marks

Nextcloud and the Nextcloud Logo is a registered trademark of Nextcloud GmbH. in Germany and/or other countries.

These guidelines cover the following marks pertaining both to the product names and the logo: "Nextcloud" and the blue/white cloud logo with or without the word Nextcloud; the service "Nextcloud Enterprise"; and our products: "Nextcloud Files"; "Nextcloud Groupware" and "Nextcloud Talk". This set of marks is collectively referred to as the "Nextcloud Marks."

General Guidelines for Using the Nextcloud Marks

Product Quality and Brand Perception

It is fundamentally important to us that any permitted use you make of the Nextcloud Marks be of the highest quality and integrity and meet the highest standards. To ensure this is the case, we reserve the right to revoke your permission at any time and for any reason.

Fair Use

We acknowledge and support your right to make "fair use" of the Nextcloud Marks, and do not mean to suggest with these guidelines that our permission is required in such cases. We cannot, however, tell you categorically what will and will not qualify as a "fair use."

Applying our Logo

For copies of the Nextcloud logo itself, please refer to the Press page.

Logo Usage Requirements

Do not alter the logo in any way or overlap it with additional logos or images.

The logo is light blue (#0082c9) with white text/image. It must not be used differently, especially not inverted. The name "Nextcloud" can be optionally left out though, we provide logos without the text.

The typeface of the logo (or similar ones) should not be used anywhere else. Instead use Open Sans, in light weight. Use semibold sparingly and only for selected emphasis.

Branding Guidelines

When referring to Nextcloud make sure that it is spelled correctly. Nextcloud is one word and must not be separated into two words. It has one capital, at the beginning, NextCloud is not a correct spelling.

Contributing to Nextcloud

We encourage everybody to contribute to Nextcloud and become part of the Nextcloud community.

If your contributions require trademark usage which is not permitted by these guidelines, please do not hesitate to contact us (see Contact us).

Use Cases for the Nextcloud Marks

Running a Nextcloud Server installation

You may use the Nextcloud Marks to identify your Nextcloud installation under the following conditions:

• You have not made any modifications to the Nextcloud Server itself. You are of course allowed to make modifications, but then you MUST remove our trademarks as it is no longer Nextcloud. Modifications to the Nextcloud Server here are defined as those which would would require you to provide them in source form to any user who asks under the license of the AGPLv3.
• If you advertise your server or any of your services related to Nextcloud to third parties (for example on a website), note that you have to follow all stipulations in the Advertising section and we expect you to respect our copyright. That means, do not use our texts, images or other copy and content from our website.

Note that enabling Nextcloud apps from our official app store and the basic configuration of your server are not considered changes or modifications to Nextcloud. Disabling or removing apps we ship by default (which includes Talk, Groupware, our updater, our support app, Pictures and others) or adding apps which are not in our app store IS considered a modification of Nextcloud and requires complete removing of our branding and marks.

To clarify, let us give three examples of using the Nextcloud Marks.

• Example 1. You run a Nextcloud server for yourself or within your bussiness or organization for your own employees, your family or some friends. You have not modified the branding and thus your server shows the Nextcloud logo. You have made no changes to the code of Nextcloud itself, but have installed and configured various apps from the app store. To help your users use Nextcloud, you created a page where they can find some information and documentation. On there, the Nextcloud logo is shown.
  This is perfectly OK!
• Example 2.You run a Nextcloud server for your customers. You've installed some apps and configured things, but made no other changes. And you are not a Nextcloud partner.
  We're happy that you can run a business around Nextcloud. But please make sure your customers do not confuse your services with what Nextcloud GmbH offers: an real enterprise product, backed by the best expertise available. Your customers have no access to Nextcloud Enterprise and the security and stability advantages that offers, nor do your customers have access to our experienced engineers, the people who wrote Nextcloud in the first place, for support. So this must be very clear. You can NOT use the term 'Enterprise' when referring to your Nextcloud offering, and MUST make clear it is NOT an official offering and you are NOT affiliated with Nextcloud GmbH or the Nextcloud community.

  Note: When you host Nextcloud or set up Nextcloud systems for your customers, you can not make modifications and still use our name in a user-visible way. If you make modifications, including disabling or removing or blocking automatic/recommended installation of apps shipped or installed by default in an automated way (like Talk, Mail, the support and updater apps and more), your situation is as in example 3 and you must act accordingly, including removing our branding from the UI, not pointing to our apps and so on.

• Example 3.You have taken Nextcloud and turned into a much better file sync and share solution by improving code and/or adding some custom apps you wrote. You host this for other people or just for yourself.
  We're very happy you could use Nextcloud to create something that suits you and your users, but you can't use our trademarks as your users might be confused, thinking they are using Nextcloud! Please, remove our name, logo, background and colors everywhere in the user interface and your marketing materials. In your marketing content you can note somewhere that your product is based on Nextcloud, but avoid confusion and make clear you are not affiliated to us and don't offer access to our expertise. Also, we don't want you to point people to or link to our apps - they are designed to work with Nextcloud, and you are not running a Nextcloud server anymore. Even if it works today, it might not tomorrow. You can make your own build of these apps, the source is available. Be sure to remove our branding (logo, name, other references) from them, too!

Why so difficult?
Our purpose here is to control the experience of Nextcloud business users. To be precise, our goal is to ensure a consistent and good experience and we believe that a 'support contract' for busineses, including hosting with any type of support, should be backed by our in-depth expertise. This ensures that when a problem arises that is too complex to be fixed by a system administrator, our engineers are the ultimate backup. In our opinion, a support contract for open source software is like an insurance. An insurance guarantees not only that a minor issue gets resolved, but even the worst case. An art insurance that only covers theft of a 10 euro portrait but not that Van Gogh is quite useless, too. We get contacted by businesses who purchased 'Nextcloud support' from third party providers, had a bad experience, and blame us. A support contract where a customer pays for a system administrator to try and find a solution on our forums or ask our engineers on github is NOT a useful support contract for a business, and looks bad on us and the Nextcloud brand. This is not OK and thus we do NOT give permission to anyone who wants to offer services around Nextcloud to use our brand without our permission and support.

So, if you as service provider wish to use the Nextcloud name and logo, run an unmodified Nextcloud server for your customer, with no custom apps or disabled/removed official apps. If you make such changes, don't use our name. In case of doubt, just contact us.

Distributing Nextcloud Server without modification

You can use the Nextcloud Marks to identify Nextcloud for Nextcloud Server downloads separately or as part of a Virtual Machine, docker image, installer, PHP server package or in another form as long as you have not made any modifications to Nextcloud Server itself. Modifications to the Nextcloud Server here are defined as those which would would require you to provide them in source form to any user who asks under the license of the AGPLv3.

Note that pre-configuration and enabling or pre-installing Nextcloud apps from our app store are not considered changes or modifications to Nextcloud. But no app or functionality which is part of Nextcloud by default can be removed or disabled automatically, nor can 'custom' apps which are not in our app store be installed. If you do, the result is considered a modified version of Nextcloud which means branding has to be removed (see below).

Two explicit examples. You can NOT disable the updater, the Files app, the Talk app (or prevent its installation by default), the support app, or install a custom theming app, or install a custom authentication app not on the app store and still use our brand. If you do any of those things, you must remove the Nextcloud name and marks from the application user interface completely and give it your own brand. We do not wish users to confuse modified products from a third party with the official Nextcloud product.

A hosting provider can thus provide a configured Nextcloud installation to its users as long as those can see a copyright and download notice and a link to nextcloud.com and as long as NO code changes are made, no non-appstore apps are installed and no apps are disabled. See below in the advertising section for how this service has to be described to users.

Rather than offering Nextcloud Server unmodified, we suggest to link to our installation page to ensure users can always find the latest Nextcloud release. If you offer Nextcloud as part of a package, image or installer, please keep security issues in mind. Offering easy and convenient update capabilities will greatly benefit your users. Where possible, we suggest to make use of official Nextcloud packages or zip files and tarballs.

Distributing Nextcloud Server With Modifications

You may distribute Nextcloud Server with modifications under the terms of the AGPLv3 license. That means, generally speaking, that recipients of the code should have an easy option to receive a full copy of the code, including those modifications, under the AGPLv3 licence. A download link to the original source used to generate the build you created usually suffices.

In making such a distribution you must remove all trademark uses of the Nextcloud Marks from the version of Nextcloud you are modifying. You may, if you wish, combine your own trademark or name with one of the following Nextcloud Mark tag-lines: "Based on Nextcloud," "Derived from Nextcloud," "Uses Nextcloud," "Built on Nextcloud," or "Built from Nextcloud." But make clear you have no affiliation with us and do NOT use the nextcloud name or marks anywhere in the user interface.

Also, if you ship a modified version of Nextcloud, do NOT link to or include our official apps. They are for Nextcloud and NOT supported with such modified servers. You can of course make your own builds of our mobile and desktop apps, removing all the marks and mentions of Nextcloud from them.

You generally will not need to remove or modify package headers, notes, README files, Changelogs, or other files containing uses of the Nextcloud Marks that merely describe the Nextcloud project, as long as such uses do not imply that you are formally affiliated with the Nextcloud Community and as long as nothing shows up in the normal user interface.

Nextcloud mobile client

The Nextcloud mobile clients are available on the Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) app stores. If you wish to distribute the iOS or Android client modified or unmodified on these stores you can not use ANY Nextcloud Mark other than what fair use allows and you must make sure that such stores are compatible with the respective Open Source license of such Nextcloud mobile app. This means you can NOT use the term \'Nextcloud\' in the name of your app. You MUST make clear that your app is NOT the official Nextcloud client and contains modifications from the original– if any. We reserve the right to demand you take down the Nextcloud client if you violate any of these provisions.

For distributing the Nextcloud mobile clients on any other app store, please contact us.

Nextcloud desktop client

The Nextcloud desktop client is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. If you wish to distribute the desktop client modified or unmodified you can not use ANY Nextcloud Mark other than what fair use allows. This means you can NOT use the term \'Nextcloud\' in the name of your client. You MUST make clear that your client is NOT the official Nextcloud client and contains modifications from the original. To obtain permission to distribute a modified or unmodified version of the Nextcloud desktop client with use of the Nextcloud Marks, please contact us. Please do not link to our apps for use with a product that is seriously modified and thus not 'Nextcloud'.

Linking to nextcloud.com

You are permitted to link to nextcloud.com from your web site. We have provided several logo graphics for you to choose from. To use these logos you must agree that:

• The logos will be used only on the Internet and only as a link to nextcloud.com, and not as a favicon (the little icon used in the location bar and tabs to identify a website);
• You will not imply or state an endorsement by the Nextcloud Community or otherwise misrepresent your relationship with the Nextcloud Community;
• You will not disparage the Nextcloud Community while using the logos;
• Your use of the logos will not be deceptive or false in any regard;
• You will not create a browser or border environment around Nextcloud Community content;
• You may link to Nextcloud Community content or replicate content only after obtaining permission;
• Your website will not contain content that could be construed as distasteful, offensive, or controversial, and will contain only content that is appropriate for all age groups; and
• This permission may be rescinded at any time, in which case you will have to remove the Nextcloud marks from your web site within 24 hours.

Merchandise

You are welcome to make use of the Nextcloud Marks to produce merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, bags, jackets, sweatshirts, mugs, and desktop wallpapers and give them to your friends, family, community members, provided there is no commercial interest behind it. You are required to request permission if you want to commercially distribute articles using the Nextcloud Marks or distribute them for promotion of your own commercial services (see Contact Information below to request permission). We are generally happy if a local Nextcloud promoting group wants to create and sell Nextcloud t-shirts to fund a local meetup, for example, so please just ask us!

Domain Names

If you want to include all or part of an Nextcloud Mark in a domain name, you should seek our permission (see Contact Information below to request permission). People naturally associate domain names with organizations whose names sound similar. Almost any use of an Nextcloud Mark in a domain name is likely to confuse someone, thus running afoul the overarching requirement that any use of an Nextcloud Mark not be confusing. By "domain name" we mean to refer to toplevel domains and second-level domains, but not sub-domains. You can call your private or business Nextcloud server nextcloud.mycloud.com as you wish! For commercial purposes (a service provider hosting Nextcloud), do NOT include the Nextcloud mark in your domain name, anywhere, unless you received permission to do so.

Advocacy Groups

We welcome the use of the Nextcloud Marks in connection with user groups and other Nextcloud advocacy groups, but you may only do so in accordance with the following requirements:

• Your use is not commercial in nature;
• In using an Nextcloud Mark, you are in fact referring to the thing that the Nextcloud Mark represents;
• There is no suggestion (through words or appearance) that your group is approved by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the Nextcloud Community (or its related projects) unless it actually has been so approved, sponsored, or affiliated;
• You do not incorporate other proprietary or commercial names in your group name; and
• You do not claim any trademark rights in the name, attempt to register the name with a trademark office or as a trade name, business name, or domain name, or conduct any business under the name.

Events

It is permissible to use the Nextcloud Marks to promote free and open source software events where individuals in the Nextcloud Community appear as advocates, demonstrating Nextcloud, giving talks, or otherwise represent the project, provided:

• You do not misrepresent your relationship with the Nextcloud Community;
• You do not disparage the Nextcloud Community using the Nextcloud Marks; and
• Your use of the Nextcloud Marks is not deceptive or false in any regard.

Individuals can be Nextcloud contributors, members of the wider Nextcloud community, or Nextcloud users.

Publications

If you want to include all or part of an Nextcloud Mark in the name of a publication such as a book or magazine, you need our permission (see Contact Information below to request permission). But you can use the Nextcloud Mark in a title of review inside a magazine, for example, as long as you use the Marks to refer to the official Nextcloud community or products.

Apps, Product and Service Names, and Compatibility References

You should not include an Nextcloud Mark in the name of your application, product or service, regardless of whether it is commercial or non-commercial in nature. This includes online services, such as e-commerce, community, blog, informational, promotional, and personal home page sites as well as Nextcloud apps, client apps or third party apps which interact with Nextcloud.

With that said, we consider it permissible to use an Nextcloud Mark in a file, folder, directory, or path name.

We also recognize that the Nextcloud Community needs some way to identify projects, products, and services that are compatible with Nextcloud. Our concern is that users not be confused as to whether a compatible project, product, or service is official or not. To address that concern, we request that you indicate compatibility with Nextcloud using one of the following tag-lines:

• "Works with Nextcloud"
• "Uses Nextcloud,"
• "Nextcloud App"
• "Powered by Nextcloud"
• "For use with Nextcloud"
• "For Nextcloud" or
• "Built on Nextcloud"

Advertising and Marketing Materials

You may use the Nextcloud Marks in describing and advertising your Nextcloud-related product or services like training, development and support, on websites, marketing materials or on business cards to identify your affiliation with the Nextcloud Community, so long as:

• You do not imply or state an endorsement by the Nextcloud Community or otherwise misrepresent your relationship with the Nextcloud Community;
• You do not disparage the Nextcloud Community using the Nextcloud Marks;
• Your use of the Nextcloud Marks is not deceptive or false in any regard;
• Your description, advertising, or other use does not contain content that could be construed as distasteful, offensive, or controversial, and only does contain content that is appropriate for all age groups;
• Your use of the Nextcloud Marks does not include or imply any commitment by the Nextcloud Community to provide support, service, indemnification, or updates; and
• Your use of the Nextcloud Marks does not create the impression that you provide Nextcloud support, services or products that are related to or can be mistaken for Nextcloud support, services or products as provided by Nextcloud GmbH.
• You must explicitly make clear that your service is not backed by or supported by Nextcloud GmbH and you must link to https://nextcloud.com/enterprise so prospective customers can appreciate the difference and make an informed decision. For this, you can state something like "This service is not backed by Nextcloud GmbH services" in a style that fits with the rest of the page where you describe your service or pricing.

We reserve the right to deny allowing your use of our trademark for any reason, including but not limited to a determination that your usage creates confusion for our users, damages or mis-represents our brand, is a breach of any of the stipulations above or for any other reason, at any time.

Explicit exemptions:

The use of the Nextcloud marks for the service "Nextcloud Enterprise"; and our products: "Nextcloud Files"; "Nextcloud Groupware" and "Nextcloud Talk" are explicitly reserved for use by Nextcloud GmbH and certified partners.

Online advertising is excempt from this permission, that is, you are not allowed to use keyword based online marketing campaigns like Google Adwords, Facebook ads and similar to advertise your Nextcloud services.

Business Names

You can not include an Nextcloud Mark in the name of your company, business or product. It can not be used in (part of) a domain.

Commentary

We welcome comment and constructive criticism, and we try to have a good sense of humor. It is fine to use the Nextcloud Marks in your discussion, commentary, criticism, or parody, in ways that unequivocally do not imply endorsement. Please do not create mock or parody products with names based on the Nextcloud Marks. Also, please be aware that, in our opinion, it is not "fair use" to use the Nextcloud Marks in a manner that disparages Nextcloud technology or the Nextcloud Community.

All Other Uses

All other uses of the Nextcloud Marks need to be reserved by us, but we are available to discuss terms for use.

Contact Information

Please contact us if you need assistance regarding these Guidelines, e.g. for discussing your case or requesting permission, by using our contact form.

License for these Guidelines

These Guidelines are published under Version 3 of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License, and are derived in part from the openSUSE Trademark Guidelines (April 20, 2015), which in turn is derived in part from the OpenSolaris Trademark Policy 1.0 (May 5, 2008), the Ubuntu and Mozilla Trademark guidelines.

We reserve the right to make changes to the guidelines at any time without notification. We last updated the guidelines on April 16 2020.