Guidelines for Use of SDL Marks

Guidelines for Third-party Use of SDL Marks and Distinguishing Symbols

Find guidelines for third-party use of SDL marks and distinguishing symbols.

Scope of these Guidelines

These guidelines are for SDL licensees, authorized resellers, registered developers and customers, and for all others wishing to use trademarks, service marks, logos, web pages, screen shots, images, packaging, colour combinations and the like of SDL, or any combination of these things, which may distinguishing SDL from another or may distinguish the goods and services of SDL from those of another (the “SDL Marks”).

If you have any questions regarding these Guidelines, or the use of SDL Marks in any materials, please contact pr@sdl.com.

Use of SDL Marks

Use of an SDL Mark without the prior consent of SDL may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of the laws of various countries.

SDL does not permit the use of its logos, company names, product names or other SDL Marks by third-parties without its prior permission. SDL grants you this permission, subject to your complying with these Guidelines and any other written instruction of SDL.

This written instruction may, for instance, be in the form of a written license or partnership agreement between you and SDL, written approval obtained from SDL through the approvals process described in these Guidelines or clear and unambiguous language on our www.sdl.com website. Any elements of these Guidelines not addressed in such written instruction apply to your use of the SDL Marks.

Except for the limited right to use SDL Marks as expressly permitted under these Guidelines, no other rights of any kind are granted under these Guidelines.

The SDL Marks are valuable property of SDL. When you use the SDL Marks, whether in promotional, advertising, reference or other materials, or on your web site, product, label, or packaging or elsewhere, you accept and acknowledge that SDL is the sole owner of these, and you promise that you will not interfere with the rights of SDL in any SDL Mark, including challenging any right of SDL to use, register or apply to register such an SDL Mark, alone or in combination with other elements, anywhere in the world, and that you will not harm, misuse, or bring into disrepute SDL Mark or attempt to do so. The goodwill derived from using any part of an SDL Mark inures exclusively to the benefit of and belongs to SDL.

Approvals Process

In order to request a variation for a specific use of an SDL Mark or if you would otherwise like to enter into the marketing communications approval process of SDL, please email pr@sdl.com.

Authorised Use of SDL Marks

So long as you comply with the section Representation of SDL Marks in these Guidelines, the following use of SDL Marks is authorised:

Product. If you are a developer of a software product compatible with an SDL software product you may use ‘SDL’, ‘TRADOS’ or other another SDL Mark which is a word mark (an “SDL Word Mark”)(but not an SDL logo or other SDL-owned graphic symbol) in a referential phrase on packaging and/or on promotional or advertising materials to describe that your product is compatible with the referenced SDL product, provided that this use complies with the following:

a. your product is, in fact, designed to operate with and is compatible with the referenced SDL product;

b. the SDL Word Mark is not part of your product name, is used only in a descriptive and referential phrase such as “compatible with,” “for use with,” or “for,” is displayed with less prominence than the name of your product on any web page, packaging surface or analogous subset of your materials on which it appears; and

c. the reader could not reasonable construe the SDL Word Mark to inaccurately imply a relationship or affiliation with or to give an impression of endorsement or sponsorship by any SDL company, or show SDL or its products in a false or derogatory light.
Publications, Web Sites, Seminars and Conferences: You may use an SDL Word Mark (but not an SDL logo or other SDL-owned graphic symbol) in connection with books, magazines, periodicals or other publications, web sites, seminars, conferences or (where these comprise non-commercial informational fora concerning an SDL product) web pages, provided you comply with the following requirements:

a. use in a title is referential and less prominent than the rest of the title an must not inaccurately imply a relationship or affiliation with or to give an impression of endorsement or sponsorship by any SDL, for instance:
“SDL Trisoft Information Exchange Site” (not permissible);
“SDL Tridion Usage Guide” (not permissible);
“<Your Name> Seminar: Migrating Your In-house Translation Team to SDL Trados” (permissible);

b. your name and logo appear more prominent than the SDL Word Mark on each such publication and all written material related to the seminar or conference and on all such web pages;

c. the use does not reflect unfavourably on SDL or on any SDL product or service;

d. a trademark attribution is included, giving notice of the ownership by SDL of any trademark of SDL used, as given in the section Trademark Symbols, Notice and Attribution under the section Representation of SDL Marks of these Guidelines; and

e. a disclaimer is included on such materials to disclaim affiliation, endorsement and sponsorship by SDL, similar to or conveying the same meaning as the following:
“<Title> is an independent <publication / web site> and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by SDL.”

Use of SDL Marks Not Authorised by SDL

Unless permitted by the written instruction of SDL as described in the section Use of SDL Marks of these Guidelines:

SDL Logo and SDL-owned Graphic Symbols. You must not use any SDL logo or other SDL-owned graphic symbol on or in connection with any product, packaging, manual, promotional/advertising materials or web sites or for any other purpose except pursuant to an express written trademark license from SDL, such as a reseller agreement.
Assertion of Rights over Marks. You must not use or register, in whole or in part, ‘SDL’, ‘TRADOS’, ‘TMS’, ‘TRISOFT’, ‘TRIDION’, other SDL Mark, including SDL-owned logos or graphic symbols or alterations or derivatives of these, as or as part of a any company name, trade name, product name, or service name or indicate this to be a mark of yours or seek ownership or other rights in the same except as specifically allowed in these Guidelines.
Variations, Translations or Abbreviations. You must not use an image designed to be or likely to be mistaken for or to be reminiscent of an SDL logo for any purpose. Nor are you allowed to use a variation, phonetic equivalent, foreign language translation, imitation, satirical or other derivative, or abbreviation of an SDL Mark for any purpose. For example:

“SiDeLong Translation Services”, “SDL Gondwanaland, Inc.”, “TRADOS2000”, “TreeSoft” (not permissible)
[compare: “SDL Translation Services”; Various “SDL” company names; “TRADOS”; “Trisoft”];
Inappropriate Material or Manner: You must not use any SDL Mark in a disparaging manner or use it on any web site that contains or displays any material of a pornographic or bigoted nature or of a nature otherwise liable to cause offence to a reasonable person, or which involves the sale of tobacco or alcohol to persons under the lawful age or otherwise violates any law, or display an SDL Mark on any other materials in a comparable manner.
Announcements: You must not make any public announcement about the existence of a contractual agreement or business relationship between you and SDL, whether actual, intended or historic.
Endorsement or Sponsorship: You must not use any SDL Mark to inaccurately imply a relationship or affiliation with or to give an impression of endorsement or sponsorship, or support of a third party product or service by any SDL company.
Merchandise Items: You may not manufacture, sell or give-away merchandise items, such as T-shirts and mugs, bearing SDL Marks.
SDL Trade Dress: You may not imitate the distinctive SDL designs of web sites, letterheads, publications, design, logos, or typefaces or otherwise through selection of word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or through false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, cause confusion, mistake, deceit as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of such materials by SDL.
Slogans and Taglines: You may not use or imitate an SDL slogan or tagline.

For example: “Our Content. Your Language.” (not permissible)
[compare: “Your Content. Their Language.”]
Domain Names. You may not register or use a web domain name which incorporates an SDL Mark or wording very similar to an SDL Mark, for example:

“multiterm.com”, “sdlcontenta.tv”, “sdl-trisoft.co.jp”, “trados2010.com” (not permissible)

Representation of SDL Marks

Trademark Symbols, Notice and Attribution

a. First Prominent Use.
In countries which permit the use of the ® or ™ symbols without regard to whether registration is in that country or another, the appropriate symbol should be used the first time that the SDL Mark appears in material only (excepting that you can make this the first use outwith a heading or subheading if you prefer).

b. Drill-down.
It is not necessary to use trademark symbols in a web page nested within another where this is for the purpose of expansion / “drill down” to more detail. This is optional.

c. Versioning.
Trademark symbols associated with SDL Marks which are product names should appear before any version number, for instance:

SDL Trados® 2007 (correct representation)
SDL Trados 2007® (incorrect representation)

d. Trademark Notice and Attribution – Standard.
Include an attribution of the ownership of SDL Marks by SDL within the credit notice section of your product, product documentation, or other communication, in the following or very similar formats:

_________ and _______ are registered trademarks of SDL plc.
_________ and _______ are trademarks of SDL plc.

e. Trademark Notice and Attribution – Reduced.
Where your material requires a significant number of attributions and you apply the same treatment to any trademarks of your own in the same material, it is less desirable but is acceptable to SDL that you ensure that every SDL Mark which is a product or a service mark begins with or is preceded by the text “SDL” and within the credit notice section of your product, product documentation, or other communication, you use the following or similar text to:

“All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.”

2. Correct Phrasing, Parts of Speech, Etc.

a. It is preferable that an SDL Mark be used as an adjective, following it (in English) by the class of item that it qualifies (or doing the equivalent in the language in which it used). The use of an SDL Mark as a noun may be acceptable. Its use as a verb never is.

Correct: He performed the task using SDL AuthorAssistant software.
Acceptable: The content should then be processed through SDL AuthorAssistant.
Incorrect: Then you SDL AuthorAssistant the content.

b. When using an SDL Mark as a noun it must mean only the product or service Itself:

Acceptable: The information stored in the client’s SDL MultiTerm software comprises all the known terminology.
Incorrect: The client’s SDL MultiTerm software comprises all the known terminology.

c. The SDL Mark should be correctly capitalize and spaced, as shown on www.sdl.com or SDL literature. Note that a number of SDL marks have a capital letter in the middle: these should always be displayed in the given combination of upper and lowercase letters used by SDL itself.

d. The SDL Mark should not be abbreviated. This is sometimes seen when these are being grouped together, and is not acceptable.

Correct: The project was undertaken using SDL Trados Studio, SDL MultiTerm Online and SDL TMS software.
Incorrect: The project was undertaken using SDL Trados Studio, MultiTerm Online and TMS software.
Incorrect: The client should use MT-OL.
Exception: Note, however, that a small number of SDL Marks are sanctioned in long and abbreviated forms, so that each of the following is itself an SDL Mark:

SDL Translation Management System and SDL TMS; and
SDL Knowledge-based Translation System and SDL KbTS.

e. The SDL Mark should not be used as a slang terms and should not be modified to make them less formal.

Correct: Those who use an SDL TMS system often become enthusiasts.
Incorrect: A TMSer often becomes an enthusiast.
Incorrect: I want to have the workflow TMS’d.

f. The SDL Mark should not be used in the possessive.

Correct: The new features in SDL Trados Studio are impressive.
Incorrect: SDL Trados Studio's new features are impressive.

g. The SDL Mark should not be used in the plural.

Correct: The client installed two copies of SDL Trados TM Server and three copies of SDL MultiTerm.
Incorrect: The client installed two SDL Trados TM Servers and three SDL MultiTerms.

For further information with respect to use of SDL Marks please send an email to pr@sdl.com.