# NewPipe e.V.

## Why trademark?

Unfortunately, NewPipe is faced with an increasing amount of copycat clones and unofficial download sites that pretend to be official sources. Of course, in the light of redundancy and NewPipe's permissive GPL v3 license, we do not in itself have a problem with independent projects who leverage TeamNewPipe's work. That said, we continue to expect derivatives to meet their end of the GPL v3's license terms, requiring application source code to be made available under the same license terms.

Additionally, from now on, we expect third-party projects to clearly distinguish themselves from official NewPipe releases, for the following goals:

- Users should know what they are downloading.
  Unofficial releases of NewPipe often contain advertisements or other unwanted contents. We want our users who search the net for "NewPipe" to find what they are looking for, and not fall for any scam websites.
- Downstream projects deserve a unique, strong identity.
  While derivatives of NewPipe often use the term "NewPipe" in their own name to signalize a shared history of code, it also incorrectly implies endorsement from the NewPipe project. In the future, we expect downstream projects to distinguish themselves from our project and to develop their own brand.

Hence, NewPipe e. V. has registered the term "NewPipe" as a word mark in the European Union (https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/019104121) and devised the following policy for using the mark. It is applicable to all uses of the mark within the European common market, including global uses that target (parts of) the European common market.

## Trademark policy

Downloadable apps

- This policy applies to end-user facing applications only. Development-oriented test releases (for instance, as a convenient way of gathering feedback to a feature you developed) or application source code (for instance, because a derivative of NewPipe is using the term 'newpipe' in its internal structure) are not affected.
- Per definition, the following distribution ways serve official versions of NewPipe. All other distributions are unofficial distributions, even if they serve the same binary package.
  - https://newpipe.net/#download
  - https://archive.newpipe.net/fdroid/repo/
  - https://f-droid.org/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/
- Non-official releases of NewPipe may be released to the public, provided they are compiled from one of the code revisions (commits) provided via https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/. Supplementary material like the download website must clearly indicate
  - the commit number to uniquely identify the code revision used for the build,
    - or alternatively, the version name, if the revision is marked as a release on https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases,
  - that the installation file was not assembled by TeamNewPipe,
  - that the release is not official and
  - that it is not compatible with official releases.
- Supplementary software designed to enhance functionality of official NewPipe releases may make use of the mark as a secondary component of the name, for instance, "Downloader for NewPipe", but not "NewPipe Downloader". Derivatives of official NewPipe are not considered supplementary software.
- Other downloadable apps that are not built from one of the aforementioned code versions and are not supplementary software may not make use of the mark.
- Transition period: We grant existing NewPipe derivative projects which are currently already making use of the term "NewPipe" in their name additional time to rebrand until April 30th, 2025.

Website representation

- The following websites are official NewPipe websites entitled to use the mark.
  - https://newpipe-ev.de/
  - https://newpipe.net/
  - https://f-droid.org/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/
- All other websites that make use of the mark are required to:
  - Explicitly, recognizably and clearly state that it is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by TeamNewPipe.
  - Not present themselves in a way which implies affiliation with, endorsement of or authorship by TeamNewPipe or NewPipe e. V..
  - Not endorse downloadable apps in violation of this trademark policy or of NewPipe's GPL v3 license.
  - If they contain links to downloadable apps that resemble an official NewPipe release, they must indicate the version name of the version provided. In the case of unofficial releases, they must instead include the additional information as required for the distribution of unofficial releases per above.

## Changes to the policy

We reserve the right to change the trademark policy from time to time. Changes will become visible on this website.
The policy was last amended by the plenum meeting on Feburary 8, 2025.

## Questions and Answers

1. NewPipe is no longer free software!
   This is not the case; many other free software applications have chosen to register a mark for similar reasons.
   You are still free to run, study, modify, and distribute NewPipe. However, for end-user facing distributions, we ask that you communicate to your recipients whether you self-compiled an official release, or whether you created a derivative project, by following our guidelines. We believe that this will make it clearer to your users what they are getting!
2. This is truly a capitalistic, corporate move!
   The decision to take this step was not made in a typical corporate, top-down fashion. Rather, there was very broad consent within TeamNewPipe that registering a mark is a good idea. Also, keep in mind that NewPipe e. V. is bound towards all its members to act within the purpose of promoting digital media software.
   You may have noticed that the phrasing on this page differs from the more relaxed tone you might know from NewPipe's blog posts – we want this document to be as free from misunderstands as possible, hence a more formal tone.
3. When is an application considered end-user facing?
   A build can be considered as a developer-facing test build if it is short-lived and intended for gathering early feedback, for instance, because it is part of a Pull Request on GitHub. On the other hand, an APK file uploaded to GitHub releases is to be considered end-user facing.
4. When am I using a mark?
   Generally, a mark is "used" when it is put in a place where it promotes a product. In our case, the NewPipe application is a product which the mark is used to promote, because the app bears the mark as its name. We are also using the mark on our websites to promote our app, because we want our users to know which features it contains.
   End-users who are, for instance, reviewing a product, are generally not "using" the mark in this sense.
5. When am I using a mark in the European common market?
   A use of the mark happens in the European common market if it is reaches out to customers within the European common market. We understand this to be the case for websites that are reachable – or apps that are downloadable – from within the European common market and are localized to at least one of the languages officially spoken there.

If you have any further questions, please contact board@newpipe-ev.de.

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