1. Why this policy exists
The Kirak runtime is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0. That licence gives you broad rights to the software — but it explicitly does not grant any rights to our trademarks. This policy explains how you may use the Kirak name and logo.
Our goals are simple: people should be free to talk about Kirak, write about it, teach it, build on it, package it, and even offer competing services based on it — while users can always trust that something called “Kirak”, or carrying the Kirak logo, is the genuine, unmodified project and is not falsely presented as official or endorsed.
2. The marks this policy covers
- The word marks “Kirak”, “Kirak Studio”, and “Sizmic”;
- The Kirak logo and any stylised form of the marks; and
- Any other names, logos, or taglines we identify as Kirak or Sizmic brand assets.
These are trademarks of Sizmic Limited. They are currently unregistered and protected under the law of passing off and unfair competition; trademark applications are planned. This policy applies whether or not a mark is registered. We will update this section with registration details as they are granted.
3. The core principle
You may use the marks as long as your use does not create confusion about the source of software or services, and does not falsely suggest that Sizmic sponsors, endorses, certifies, or is affiliated with you or your product. When in doubt, make your own brand primary and use “Kirak” only to describe, factually, what your thing does or works with.
4. Uses you can make without asking us
You do not need our permission to:
Talk about Kirak. Use the word “Kirak” in the ordinary text of articles, blog posts, documentation, books, courses, talks, social media, and community discussions to refer to the project, the runtime, or the company.
State compatibility, factually. Say that your product, library, template, or service “works with Kirak”, “is built on Kirak”, “supports Kirak”, or “is compatible with Kirak” — as a plain descriptive statement, in normal body text, not styled as a logo or brand and not more prominent than your own name.
Redistribute the official, unmodified runtime. Package and distribute the genuine, unmodified Kirak runtime under the name “Kirak” (for example, in a Linux distribution or package manager), provided you do not modify it, do not present yourself as its origin, and keep its licence and notices intact.
Run community content and events. Create tutorials, example repositories, “Awesome Kirak” lists, user groups, and meetups (e.g. “Kirak London Meetup”), and other non-commercial community materials that refer to Kirak, as long as they don’t imply they are official.
Link to us using the logo. Use an unmodified Kirak logo as a link or reference to the project or its website.
5. Uses that need our written permission
Email trademark@kirak.io before you:
- use “Kirak” or the logo in the name of a product, service, company, application, domain name, top-level package name (npm, PyPI, etc.), GitHub organisation, or social media handle;
- use the Kirak logo other than to link to or refer to the project — including as your own product or company logo, favicon, or app icon;
- feature the marks prominently in advertising or on packaging as though they were your brand;
- use the marks in a way that could suggest partnership, sponsorship, certification, “official” status, or that a product is “powered by” an arrangement with us that does not exist;
- produce or sell merchandise bearing the marks; or
- use the marks in a domain name or business name generally.
We are a small team and generally supportive of the community — asking first is usually quick and painless.
6. Modified versions and forks
If you modify the Kirak runtime and distribute your modified version:
- You must not call it “Kirak”, and you must not use the Kirak logo on it. Choose your own name and branding.
- You may state factually, in descriptive text, that your project is “based on Kirak”, “a fork of Kirak”, or “originally derived from Kirak”.
- You must not imply that your modified version is the official Kirak, is endorsed by us, or is maintained by the Kirak team.
This is the one rule we will always enforce: “Kirak” must mean the genuine, unmodified project.
7. Competing and commercial services
The Apache 2.0 licence permits you to operate and charge for a hosted or managed service based on the Kirak runtime, including one that competes with Kirak Studio. This policy does not take that away. It only governs how you name and brand that service.
You may:
- describe your service factually — “managed hosting for Kirak”, “we run and operate Kirak backends”, “Kirak-compatible platform” — in ordinary text;
- state that your service uses or is built on the Kirak runtime.
You may not, without a written trademark licence from us:
- use “Kirak” as a component of your product or company name (for example, “KirakCloud”, “KirakHost”, “Managed Kirak”, “Kirak Platform”);
- use the Kirak logo as, or as part of, your own product or company logo, or in your marketing as though the brand were yours;
- use “Kirak” in your domain name, app-store listing name, or marketplace name;
- present your service as official, endorsed, certified, or affiliated with Sizmic or the Kirak project.
The permitted form is: “[Your Own Brand] — hosting for Kirak”, with your name and logo primary and “Kirak” used only descriptively.
8. Using the logo
Brand assets and detailed guidelines are at kirak.io/brand. In summary:
- use the logo files we provide, unmodified;
- keep clear space around it equal to half its height, and don’t place it on backgrounds that reduce legibility;
- don’t recolour, distort, rotate, animate, add effects to, or redraw it;
- don’t combine it with your own logo or wordmark to make a new lockup;
- don’t use it as your favicon or app icon, on merchandise, or in a way that makes it the most prominent brand on the page.
9. Domain names, package names, and handles
You must not register a domain name, top-level package name, GitHub organisation, or social media handle that contains “Kirak” (or a confusingly similar term) without our written permission.
Community projects should use a scoped or suffixed form instead — for example my-tool-for-kirak, kirak-plugin-foo published under your own scope, or a plugin in your personal repository. Personal repositories and non-commercial experiments that mention Kirak in their description (not their org name) are fine.
If you have registered a name that infringes this policy, we may ask you to stop using it and to transfer it to us, and you agree to do so.
10. Quality and reputation
You must not use the marks:
- in connection with content or conduct that would breach the standards in our Acceptable Use Policy;
- in anything defamatory, obscene, deceptive, or unlawful; or
- in a way that disparages Kirak or Sizmic or is likely to damage our reputation or goodwill.
11. Enforcement
If we believe a use breaches this policy, we will normally contact you first and try to resolve it cooperatively — this is a community, and most issues are misunderstandings. If a use is not corrected, we may make a formal request to the relevant platform, registrar, or app store, and we reserve all rights under trademark and unfair-competition law. Nothing in this policy limits our right to act against uses that create a serious or immediate risk of confusion or harm.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the project grows and as trademark registrations are obtained. The current version is always at kirak.io/legal/trademark.
13. Requesting permission or reporting misuse
Email trademark@kirak.io. For a permission request, tell us: who you are, exactly how you want to use the mark, where it will appear, and for how long. For a misuse report, include a link and a short description.
14. Attribution
This policy is adapted from the Model Trademark Guidelines (modeltrademarkguidelines.org), used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.