habeas-protocol

Trademark Policy

Status

This is an informal trademark policy for the Habeas Protocol project at v0.2. No formal trademark registration has yet been filed. This document states the maintainers’ intent and sets ground-rules for the use of the project’s names and marks while the project is in its open research phase. It will be updated, and tightened, as the project incorporates and files formal marks.

This policy is in the spirit of the Mozilla, Rust, and PostgreSQL trademark policies: the underlying code and data are openly licensed, but the names that identify the project are not part of those licences.

Marks claimed

The following names and marks are associated with this project:

• Habeas Protocol — the name of the open specification, rule library, corpus, and reference implementation in this repository.
• Maxim Labs — the name of the publisher / working group responsible for the protocol.

The Latin word “habeas” by itself is generic and is not claimed. Only the compound mark “Habeas Protocol” is associated with this project.

What the open licences do not grant

The MIT (code) and CC-BY-4.0 (data) licences in this repository grant broad rights to use, copy, modify, and redistribute the code and the dataset. They do not grant any rights in the names “Habeas Protocol” or “Maxim Labs”, or in any logo, wordmark, or visual identity associated with the project.

In short: you can fork the code; you cannot fork the brand.

Permitted without permission

You do not need to ask before:

• Nominative use — referring to the project by name in an accurate and factual way. Examples: “compatible with Habeas Protocol”, “this library implements Habeas Protocol v0.2”, “based on the Habeas Protocol corpus”, “as scored under the Habeas Protocol primitives”.
• Academic citation — citing the project, the paper, or the corpus in research, reports, or teaching.
• Editorial reference — naming the project in articles, blog posts, conference talks, podcasts, or other commentary. Critical or unfavourable commentary is fine.
• Linking — linking to the GitHub repository, the dashboard, or any public artefact of the project.

Requires permission

You should email thehamzaq@gmail.com before:

• Using “Habeas Protocol” or “Maxim Labs” as the name of a product, service, company, organisation, or paid offering.
• Distributing a modified version of the code or data under the “Habeas Protocol” name. Modified versions must be renamed (see next section).
• Registering domain names that include “habeas-protocol”, “habeasprotocol”, “maxim-labs”, “maximlabs”, or confusingly-similar variants.
• Producing merchandise, swag, or printed materials that prominently use the name or any associated logo.
• Marketing or promotional materials that imply endorsement, certification, or official affiliation with the project.
• Holding events branded as “Habeas Protocol” events (conferences, workshops, hackathons).

Permission for non-commercial community use will normally be granted quickly and freely. Permission for commercial uses depends on context.

Modified versions must rename

If you fork this project and modify it materially — changes to the primitive rubric, changes to the rule library that affect certified rules, changes to the API contract, changes to the corpus methodology — your fork must use a different name. You may continue to say things like “based on Habeas Protocol” or “originally derived from Habeas Protocol” so long as that statement is accurate and is not used as a product name.

This is the same pattern Mozilla applies to Firefox: anyone can take the code and rebuild it, but they cannot ship it as “Firefox”.

Preferred attribution

When referring to the project in writing or in software, please use:

• Habeas Protocol (initial caps, two words). Not “habeas protocol”, not “HABEAS PROTOCOL”, not “HabeasProtocol”, not “Habeas”.
• Maxim Labs (initial caps, two words). Not “MaximLabs”, not “MAXIM”.

When citing the spec, please include the version (currently v0.2) and a link to this repository.

Why this matters

The point of a trademark policy on an open-source project is not to restrict usage. It is to ensure that when a user, court, regulator, or academic encounters the name “Habeas Protocol”, they are looking at the authoritative project — not a fork that has diverged, not a product that has co-opted the name, not a vendor implying certification that has not been granted. Because this project intends to interoperate with real courts and to participate in standards-setting, brand integrity matters more than for a typical software project.

Contact

For any trademark-related question — permission requests, attribution guidance, reports of misuse, partnership discussions — email thehamzaq@gmail.com with subject line [Habeas Trademark] <topic>.

Disclaimer

This policy reflects the current intent of the project’s maintainers. It is not legal advice and does not create a contract. The maintainers reserve the right to update this policy as the project formalises. In the event of any ambiguity, the maintainers’ decision governs until a registered mark and a formal policy supersede this document.

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