governance

Trademark and usage policy

Leji™ is a trademark of Contexing, LLC. Use it as an adjective for the thing it names, the Leji specification, the Leji schemas, the Leji tooling, and not as the name of your own product.

Leji is an open specification, and the name is how people find the real thing. This policy says what you may do with the name without asking, what needs distinct branding, and the one thing that needs written permission. It covers the Leji name and logo only. It does not narrow the licenses: the specification is CC-BY-4.0, and the schemas, SDKs, and tooling are Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.md.

Contexing, LLC holds the Leji name and logo, and stewards the specification. See GOVERNANCE.md.

What you may do without asking

  • Say what your product does. "Leji-compatible", "implements Leji 1.0", "supports Leji", and similar truthful descriptions need no permission and no license.
  • Redistribute the real thing. You may redistribute the specification and the reference tooling unmodified, under the name, exactly as published. A redistribution's registry or store listing says who repackaged it and does not present itself as the official distribution channel.
  • Use the names the specification requires. File names, directory names, schema identifiers, manifest keys, and protocol identifiers that the specification defines may be used by anyone implementing it. This functional use implies no endorsement and needs no permission.
  • Keep existing commands working. A fork or an independent implementation may ship an executable namedleji, so existing scripts, CI configurations, and documentation keep working. On the conditions in "The command name" below, we treat that as functional use of an interface identifier and do not assert the mark against it.
  • Compete with us. Independent commercial products and services built on Leji, including ones competing directly with the steward's own products, are welcome. No permission, license, or notification is required.

What needs distinct branding

A fork or a modified version of the specification or the tooling gets its own product name and its own branding. Say truthfully what it is derived from; do not present it as the canonical Leji, and do not use the name in a way that implies the steward endorses, certifies, or maintains it.

The command name

We treat using leji as the command name of a compatible implementation as functional use of an interface identifier, and we will not assert the Leji mark against it, provided all of the following hold:

  • The implementation's --version output, its --help output, its packaging, and its documentation carry its own name, one clearly distinct from Leji that does not use Leji as its dominant identifier.
  • Those same places state what it is derived from, or that it independently implements the Leji specification.
  • None of them states or implies that it is the official Leji distribution, or that the steward endorses, certifies, or maintains it.

This applies only while every condition is met. Any use that fails a condition is outside this non-assertion, without limiting any rights the law provides either side.

This covers the executable's command name only. It does not cover package names, repository names, organization names, domain names, or listing names in package registries and app stores. Those identify source, so they follow the distinct-branding rule above.

The logo

The permissions above cover the name. They do not cover the logo. The repository licenses do not extend to the logo files, and Contexing, LLC owns their copyright.

Contexing, LLC grants you permission to reproduce, distribute, and display the logo files unmodified, solely as integral parts of unmodified builds of the software and of faithful, unmodified redistributions of the official artifacts. Uses that the law permits, such as nominative reference and editorial use, need no permission either. Using the Leji logo as branding requires prior written permission from Contexing, LLC. Ask at hello@leji.org.

Truthful text references never need the logo, so nothing in this policy stops you from describing what your product does.

The Leji identity

The Leji mark, an Ionic column, and Leji green #009F71 identify the specification and its stewarded source. Products built on Leji carry their own distinct branding, and that holds for the steward's own products too: they do not use the Leji logo or the Leji identity as their trade dress.

Conformance claims

Conformance to Leji is self-attested. A team or a product states its own level in its manifest, and tools can check every requirement a machine can check against the published checklist and report the rest; the checklist says which items are machine-checked and which are process-attested. There is no certification program, no registry, no gatekeeper, and no fee, so "conforms to Leji 1.0" is a compatibility claim you make and stand behind, not a status anyone grants you.

Name the version you are claiming, as in "conforms to Leji 1.0", so the claim can be checked. A conformance claim that is untruthful is outside the descriptive-use permission above.

The name in the specification

Leji is the name of the specification and its source. The specification uses descriptive terms for the artifacts it defines, "context layer", "context manifest", "context index", "context changelog", so implementers can describe what they build without using the name at all. Contexing claims no trademark rights in those descriptive terms standing alone. Use the descriptive terms for the artifacts, and Leji for the specification and its stewarded source.

Spec-defined identifiers that contain "leji", such as file names, directory names, schema identifiers, and manifest keys, are functional use and need no permission, per "Use the names the specification requires" above. The command name has its own conditions, in "The command name".

Changes to this policy

We may revise this policy, and revisions apply going forward. A use that complied with the policy when it began stays covered for that use, in the form in which it was made. Continued use and new use after a revision follow the policy then in effect.

Questions

Ask at hello@leji.org. If your use is truthful and does not present your product as the canonical Leji, the answer is usually yes, and this page is meant to save you the email.