# NovaClaw Trademark Policy

**Short version: the code is licensed, the name is not.** You may fork NovaClaw under the
[LICENSE](LICENSE). You may not call your fork NovaClaw.

## What this covers

The marks (the "NovaClaw Marks"):

- the name **NovaClaw**, alone or as part of another name
- the **novaclaw.app** domain and the NovaClaw logo, glyph, and icon set
- confusingly similar variants — including **Nova Claw**, **NovaClaws**, **NovaClaw AI**,
  **NovaClawOS**, transliterations, and misspellings that would be read as the same name

These marks are owned by Nancy Sadkov. Rights in a trade name and in an unregistered mark arise from
use, and NovaClaw has been used publicly and continuously as the name of this software since 2025.
**The [LICENSE](LICENSE) grants no trademark rights** — its Trademarks clause says so explicitly, and
nothing in this file grants any either, except the narrow permissions below.

## What you may do without asking

- **Say what your software is built on.** "Built on NovaClaw", "a NovaClaw fork", "compatible with
  NovaClaw", "an app for NovaClaw". Factual, descriptive references are fine and always will be.
- **Write about NovaClaw.** Reviews, tutorials, comparisons, criticism, academic work, news. Use the
  name as much as you need to. Use the logo to illustrate a piece about NovaClaw.
- **Redistribute NovaClaw unmodified**, with its name and branding intact, under the LICENSE.
- **Name your app freely.** A third-party app that runs on NovaClaw is your product with your name on
  it — see the LICENSE's additional permission #1. Just don't imply we published it.

## What needs permission

- **Naming a fork or derivative NovaClaw**, or anything in the list above. Rename it. Pick your own
  name — you can still say it's a NovaClaw fork.
- **Using the marks in your product name, company name, app name, domain, package name, social
  media handle, or logo.**
- **Using the marks in a way that implies we built, endorse, sponsor, review, certify, or support
  your thing** when we don't.
- **Merchandise** carrying the marks.

## If you fork it

Do these three things and there's no problem:

1. **Change the name and the logo.** Every user-visible place: the window title, the About screen,
   the installer, the executable name, the docs, the site. Your fork needs its own identity.
2. **Keep the copyright notices and the LICENSE.** That's a license requirement, not a courtesy —
   see the Redistribution clause.
3. **Say where it came from, and that we're not involved.** "Foo is a fork of NovaClaw. Not
   affiliated with or endorsed by NovaClaw or Nancy Sadkov." That sentence is accurate, it protects
   your users, and it's the whole ask.

## Why this exists

Because "NovaClaw" is how a user knows the software came from us and behaves the way we said it
does — that the data plane really doesn't egress, that it doesn't ship ads or content telemetry.
A fork carrying our name can make promises we don't keep, and the user has no way to tell. The name
is the accountability. Keeping it distinct is what makes it mean anything.

This policy is deliberately narrow. It restricts **naming**, not **use**, not **modification**, and
not **competition on the merits**. Fork it, improve it, ship it, beat us — under your own name.

## Contact

Questions, permission requests, or a report of misuse: open an issue, or contact Nancy Sadkov
through [novaclaw.app](https://novaclaw.app).

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*NovaClaw is not affiliated with or endorsed by the opencode project. See [NOTICE](NOTICE) for
third-party attribution.*
