# Trademark policy

The ClawSecCheck **code** is free software under the [MIT licence](LICENSE). The ClawSecCheck
**name**, logo and mascot are not.

This distinction is deliberate and it is the whole point of this page: an MIT licence grants
rights to the code and says nothing about names. Stating the position explicitly is what makes
it enforceable, and leaving it unstated is what makes it not.

## What the MIT licence gives you

Everything the licence says: use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense and
sell copies of the software, including for commercial purposes, subject only to keeping the
copyright and licence notice.

Fork it. Ship it inside your product. Build a business on it. That is what the licence is for
and no permission is needed.

## What it does not give you

Rights in the marks. The following are claimed as trademarks of the ClawSecCheck maintainer:

- the name **ClawSecCheck**
- the ClawSecCheck logo and lobster mascot
- the tagline **"The claw that checks your claws"**

Registration status: unregistered at the time of writing. Rights in an unregistered mark arise
from use, and this notice records that use and the claim.

## What you may do without asking

- **Say what your software is.** "Built on ClawSecCheck", "compatible with ClawSecCheck",
  "a fork of ClawSecCheck" — accurate, descriptive references are fine, and are called
  nominative fair use.
- **Write about it.** Articles, talks, reviews, comparisons, tutorials, criticism. Favourable
  or not; no permission is required and none is implied by a mention.
- **Cite its output.** Reports, grades and findings produced by the tool are yours to publish.
- **Package it.** Distribution through a package manager, registry or distro, under the
  project's own name, provided the package is the unmodified project or is clearly marked as
  a downstream build.

## What needs permission

- **Naming a different product ClawSecCheck**, or a name close enough to be confused with it.
  A fork is welcome; a fork named ClawSecCheck is not, because a user cannot then tell whose
  security verdicts they are trusting. In a security tool that confusion is the actual harm,
  not an abstract one.
- **Using the logo or mascot as your own** product identity, app icon or favicon.
- **Implying endorsement, affiliation, certification or partnership**, including phrasing like
  "ClawSecCheck approved", "ClawSecCheck certified" or "official ClawSecCheck ...".
- **Registering** the name, a confusingly similar name, or the logo as a trademark, domain or
  package/registry identifier in a way that suggests it is the project's own.

## If you fork

Please rename. It costs you a search-and-replace and it saves your users from installing a
security scanner while believing it is a different security scanner. Keep the attribution the
MIT licence requires, say plainly that your project is derived from ClawSecCheck, and give
your version its own name.

## Questions

Open an issue, or contact the maintainer at <gllodi@gmail.com>. Requests that are reasonable
are generally granted; asking is not a formality designed to produce a refusal.
