Trademarks & IP

Open Source Collective can help you register a trademark or become the registered keeper of your trademark.

Overview

Open Source Collective (OSC) can hold and manage trademarks on behalf of our hosted member projects. This ensures that projects maintain legal protection over their intellectual property.

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Trademarks: What to Know

• OSC can help register new trademarks and transfer existing ones

• Having a trademark does not prevent someone from forking your project's code — it only protects your name, logo, or branding from unauthorized use.

• OSC works with Open Source IP counsel and will assist you if the need to notify parties who infringe on your trademark and, if necessary, initiate legal proceedings to protect your rights.

• OSC does not automatically take ownership of project's intellectual property. However, we can hold assets (including trademarks) on behalf of your project, if desired.

Related expenses are paid from your Collective’s budget. The costs below are an estimate of a typical registration. However, depending on the countries you register your trademark in or the complexity of your application, your fees may vary.

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Trademark Costs and Options

OSC works with an attorney specializing in open source and trademarks to ensure your project's name, logo, and brand are properly protected.

When you register or transfer a trademark through OSC, you'll receive one hour of legal guidance to:

• Understand your trademarks and how to use and protect them

• Develop trademark guidelines that clarify how others may or may not use your trademark

We recommend scheduling two calls:

1. Strategy call — discuss your trademark approach

2. Review call — discuss the implementation plan

As of February 2025, the costs are as follows:

• U.S. Single Trademark Registration — $1200 USD

  • Covers a single trademark (name or logo) in one category (class)

  • Adding an extra category: +$350

• U.S. Trademark Transfer — $350 USD

  • Covers transferring a single, already USPTO registered U.S. trademark to OSC

  • Recording additional trademarks: +$25 USD each preparing assignment of single, already registered US trademark

• Non-U.S. Trademark Registration or Transfer: Varies depending on the application and country.

  • Contact us via email for a quote.

Next Steps

If you're interested in registering or transferring a trademark through OSC, please fill out this form. Once submitted, we'll review your request and follow up with next steps.

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FAQ

Will OSC own our intellectual property?

Per our Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement, you retain ownership of all your project's intellectual property. If you would like us to hold non-monetary assets, such as trademarks, please reach out.

Why might an open source project want to register a trademark?

A trademark is “a recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others.” They are typically words and logos, but can also be colors, sounds and shapes. A trademark ensures that users can identify where a particular piece of software came from and who built it, which is an important tool for building trust and reputation in your project.

While open source software is created to be shared and modified, a modified version should not also be characterized as equivalent to the original through using the same name.

A trademark registration will help you stop those who put out a bad product or even introduce malware and pass it off as your authentic code. It will also help you stop those who try to exploit your name by creating complementary products using your name or something similar to it. Having a trademark does not prevent someone from forking the code and publishing it under a different name.

Do I need to renew the trademark or will it expire?

Unless otherwise notified, we will renew your trademarks and invoice your Collective, as needed. If your Collective does not have sufficient funds to renew, we will notify you as soon as possible and work with you to either establish a successor or let the trademark lapse.

Depending on the type of maintenance filings, the USPTO charges either $425 USD or $525 USD per class in the registration. Our fee to prepare and file the maintenance documents is $450 USD.

Maintenance filings are due 6 years after registration and 10 years after registration. Once you make the filing for the 10 years, the maintenance is due every 10 years after that.

What happens if someone is infringing my trademark?

It’s up to you to monitor use of your trademarked name and/or logo and decide what if any action to take if you think your trademark is being infringed. As part of the setup process with Waterman Legal, you’ll get an idea of some likely scenarios and possible responses.

If an issue arises, you can take some steps yourself, like contacting the person directly and asking them to respect the trademark, or submitting takedown requests to online intermediaries like social media platforms and app stores. If the infringement occurs on a platform like GitHub or Facebook, you can ask the platform support that the works are removed from their services.

If you have attempted to contact those involved, and you have been ignored or rebutted, feel free to contact us at [e-mail] and we will notify our legal counsel (or you can work with your lawyer of choice) who can provide legal advice, write a cease and desist letter, or bring an appropriate action in court. Any action that incurs extra expense (e.g. lawyer fees) needs to be funded from your Collective budget.

Do I need to register trademarks in multiple countries?

A trademark is only enforceable in countries where you’ve registered it, but registering in multiple countries can be very expensive (each country multiplies the cost).

If you have the budget and wish to register in multiple countries, you can, but registering in just one country still has value. A valid trademark in any country enables you to submit takedown requests to online intermediaries (like Twitter, Google, and app stores), gives you a basis to send a cease and desist letter, and, on the positive side, opens the door to things like commercial licensing agreements.

The vast majority of trademark issues are resolved without going to court, so you don’t necessarily need to have a trademark registered in the country where the infringer lives in order to achieve some degree of compliance.

If you register your trademark in non-US countries, Waterman Legal will coordinate with lawyers in those countries to perform the services on your behalf. Their fees will be billed to you without any markup.

What are trademark guidelines?

We include help creating your trademark guidelines in our service because it’s an important part of the process. These guidelines are normally hosted on your website, repo, or Collective page, and they help people understand how they can and cannot use your name and/or logo, and how your trademark interacts with your open source license.

Here’s a model trademark guidelines template developed for open source projects by Pam Chestek, to serve as a starting point.

Leaving OSC

If you are moving to another fiscal host or starting your own legal entity, and that entity meets certain criteria, we can transfer your trademarks over to it (the criteria are determined by what we’re allowed to do by law as a US 501(c)(6) nonprofit, e.g. we can’t usually transfer assets to a for-profit proprietary company).

If the project is shutting down completely, or you don’t have a successor entity that we are allowed to transfer assets to, we will allow the trademarks to lapse.

If your Collective runs out of money and can’t (or doesn’t want to) pay the trademark renewal fees after 5 years (the first time) or 10 years (thereafter), we will allow the trademark to lapse. (See OSC’s terms of fiscal sponsorship section 6 for more details about termination).

How can I learn more?

Here’s a detailed article based on one of Pam’s presentations about open source trademarks. Another good resource is FOSSmarks.