Legal · Trademark
Trademark notice.
1 · The marks
The word Orphograph is a coined term originated by this office for use as the name of the service offered at orphograph.com. The associated wordmark, the seal device (a coiled cord encircling a vertical staff within a globed boundary), the typographic lockup, and the colour palette together constitute the Orphograph brand.
The office asserts common-law trademark rights in the wordmark and the seal device. The first use in commerce was on the 16th of May, 2026. The first use is documented on the Bitcoin blockchain by anchored receipts of the LICENSE file, the seal images, and the home page (receipts on file at /r/0Swgri1L79ENYvPn and adjacent identifiers).
A federal registration application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office is anticipated. Until grant, the office uses the ™ indicator rather than the ® indicator. Misuse of ® in connection with the marks by any third party is not authorised and is itself actionable.
2 · Permitted reference
The word Orphograph may be used in editorial, comparative, and educational contexts to refer accurately to the service or its receipts, including:
- News reporting and commentary about the service.
- Customer reviews and personal recommendations.
- Academic and technical writing about the protocol or the architecture.
- Forum posts and social-media commentary.
- Customers identifying themselves as users of the service, including the rendering of an issued receipt or its identifier.
- Third-party verifiers, integrators, and clients identifying the protocol they implement.
Such reference does not require permission from the office.
3 · Prohibited use
The following uses are not permitted and constitute infringement:
- Use of the wordmark or the seal device as the name or branding of a competing service, product, or business.
- Registration of any domain name that incorporates the wordmark or a confusingly similar variant (including transposed characters, additional or omitted letters, alternative top-level domains, or homoglyph substitutions) where the intent or effect is to divert traffic, impersonate the office, or trade on the recognition of the marks.
- Application for trademark registration of the wordmark, the seal, or a confusingly similar mark by any party other than this office.
- Use of the wordmark or seal in connection with any claim that the user is the operator, owner, or representative of the office without express written authorisation.
- Use of the wordmark, seal, or any associated logo in any manner that suggests endorsement, sponsorship, certification, or affiliation by this office where such relationship does not exist.
- Use of the wordmark or seal in association with goods or services that are illegal, deceptive, obscene, or that would tend to bring the marks into disrepute.
4 · Forks and derivatives of the code
The source code published at github.com/Orphograph/Orphograph is released under the MIT licence. A party who forks, modifies, distributes, or operates a service from the source code is permitted to do so under the terms of the MIT licence, and is required to preserve the copyright notice and the licence text as provided in the MIT licence.
The MIT licence covers the source code only. It does not transfer the trademark rights described in this notice. A fork or derivative service must not be named "Orphograph" and must not use the seal device. A party operating a forked service is encouraged to give attribution to the upstream project ("Based on Orphograph, MIT") while choosing a distinct name and visual identity.
5 · Notice of misuse
Misuse of the marks should be reported to [email protected] with sufficient detail to identify the alleged infringer, the use complained of, and the date of first discovery. The office will respond. Good-faith reports of confused, sponsored, or fraudulent use are particularly welcomed.
6 · Reservation
This notice does not waive any right not expressly waived herein. The office reserves all common-law and statutory rights in the marks, the brand, the typographic lockup, the seal device, the colour palette, the website design, and all associated material, in every jurisdiction in which such rights exist.