Usage Guidelines

Blender is a registered trademark (®) of the Blender Foundation in EU and USA. The Blender logo itself is property of the Blender Foundation. The logo and the brand name “Blender” are not part of the GNU GPL, and can only be used commercially by the Blender Foundation on products, websites, and publications.

Third parties may use the Blender logo, provided all of the following conditions are met:

1. General Usage
   The logo can only be used to point to the product Blender or to give credit. When used with a link on a web page, it should point to the URL blender.org.
2. Prominence
   You will visualize and promote your own branding more prominent than you use the Blender logo. The Blender logo only can be used as a secondary brand, which means it has to be clear for an average viewer that this is not an official Blender or Blender Foundation website, publication or product. Do not use the Blender logo as your own logo.
3. Products
   You can use the Blender logo on promotion products, such as T-shirts for events or trade show booths, provided it is a secondary brand as described in point 2.
4. Modification
   The logo is used unaltered, without fancy enhancements, in original colors, original typography, and always complete (logo + text blender).
5. Commercial use
   Only in exceptional cases permission will be granted to use the logo on commercial products, you must contact us with a picture of how it will be used, and ask for explicit permission. Showing the Blender logo on film credits is not considered to be commmercial use.

If you have further questions or doubts, do not hesitate to contact us.

---

On artwork and community websites

Blender’s logo has been used in hundreds of ways. This was — and still is — considered to be an honest tribute to Blender, and the guidelines are not meant to make these uses “illegal” or “officially disapproved”. This page is only meant to clarify the Blender Foundation guidelines so that people know their minimum rights and where they can use the logo.

Modifying the Blender logo is really part of your own artistic freedom, and the Blender Foundation will never act against such tributes. Just don’t expect us to “officially approve” of it, that’s all.

Usage of the name Blender, trademark and brand.

Blender has been registered as a trademark by Blender Foundation in USA and EU. It has been used by Blender Foundation since 2002, and it’s a well recognized brand now. Although the name ‘Blender’ is a generic word (for a mixer), in the context of products or company names related to software it’s protected by trademark law.

With the rise of Blender’s popularity, the Blender Foundation will work on more clear guidelines for using the brand. A very good example are the guidelines from Mozilla Foundation.

In short – if you want to start a company or website related to Blender services, avoid using the name Blender in it. You can use it as a secondary tagline though – such as “Awesome Company Inc., the Blender specialists”. Same goes for forks of the Blender software, give it a new name and create a unique brand that way. The latter is also enforced by the GNU GPL, which explicitly excludes brand names from the freedom.

Some exceptions might apply, for example for free accessible community sites or websites that already exist for many years. For advice, do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks,

Ton Roosendaal, Chairman of the Blender Foundation, Amsterdam, November 2019