Getting started with Nextcloud Enterprise
- November 4 @ 3:00 pm (CET)
Nextcloud and the Nextcloud logo is a registered trademark of Nextcloud GmbH. in Germany and/or other countries. These guidelines cover the following marks pertaining both to the product names and the logo: “Nextcloud” and the blue/white cloud logo with or without the word Nextcloud; the service “Nextcloud Enterprise”; and our products: “Nextcloud Files”; “Nextcloud Groupware” and “Nextcloud Talk”. This set of marks is collectively referred to as the “Nextcloud marks.”
It is fundamentally important to us that any permitted use you make of the Nextcloud marks be of the highest quality and integrity and meet the highest standards. To ensure this is the case, we reserve the right to revoke your permission at any time and for any reason.
We acknowledge and support your right to make “fair use” of the Nextcloud marks, and do not mean to suggest with these guidelines that our permission is required in such cases. We cannot, however, tell you categorically what will and will not qualify as a “fair use.”
Preferred color scheme, also suitable for other backgrounds like images.
When the background needs to be white, like in print.
Only to be used when there is no space for text due to size. We never use the text without our logo, and avoid horizontal arrangement.
For copies of the Nextcloud logo itself,
please refer to the Press page.
When using our logo, please ensure that you give it room to breathe!
Overall rule would be to add a blank space of half the height of the logo on all sides.
Main brand color
Gradient main color ➜ light
Used for backgrounds
Used for body text
For legibility, we:
Spelling
When referring to Nextcloud make sure that it is spelled correctly. Nextcloud is ONE word and must not be separated into two words. It has one capital, at the beginning, NextCloud is NOT a correct spelling.
correct spelling
wrong spelling
We encourage everybody to contribute to Nextcloud and become part of the Nextcloud community. If your contributions require trademark usage which is not permitted by these guidelines, please do not hesitate to contact us.
You may use the Nextcloud marks to identify your Nextcloud installation
under the following conditions:
Note that enabling Nextcloud apps from our official app store and the basic configuration of your server are not considered changes or modifications to Nextcloud. Disabling or removing apps we ship by default (which includes Talk, Groupware, our updater, our support app, Pictures and others) or adding apps which are not in our app store IS considered a modification of Nextcloud and requires complete removing of our branding and marks. To clarify, let us give three examples of using the Nextcloud marks.
This is perfectly OK!
We’re happy that you can run a business around Nextcloud. But please make sure your customers do not confuse your services with what Nextcloud GmbH offers: an real enterprise product, backed by the best expertise available.
Your customers have no access to Nextcloud Enterprise and the security and stability advantages that offers, nor do your customers have access to our experienced engineers, the people who wrote Nextcloud in the first place, for support.
So this must be very clear. You can NOT use the term ‘Enterprise’ when referring to your Nextcloud offering, and MUST make clear it is NOT an official offering and you are NOT affiliated with Nextcloud GmbH or the Nextcloud community.
Note: When you host Nextcloud or set up Nextcloud systems for your customers, you can not make modifications and still use our name in a user-visible way. If you make modifications, including disabling or removing or blocking automatic/recommended installation of apps shipped or installed by default in an automated way (like Talk, Mail, the support and updater apps and more), your situation is as in example 3 and you must act accordingly, including removing our branding from the UI, not pointing to our apps and so on.
We’re very happy you could use Nextcloud to create something that suits you and your users, but you can’t use our trademarks as your users might be confused, thinking they are using Nextcloud!
Please, remove our name, logo, background and colors everywhere in the user interface and your marketing materials.
In your marketing content you can note somewhere that your product is based on Nextcloud, but avoid confusion and make clear you are not affiliated to us and don’t offer access to our expertise.
Also, we don’t want you to point people to or link to our apps – they are designed to work with Nextcloud, and you are not running a Nextcloud server anymore. Even if it works today, it might not tomorrow. You can make your own build of these apps, the source is available. Be sure to remove our branding (logo, name, other references) from them, too!
Our purpose here is to control the experience of Nextcloud business users. To be precise, our goal is to ensure a consistent and good experience and we believe that a ‘support contract’ for busineses, including hosting with any type of support, should be backed by our in-depth expertise. This ensures that when a problem arises that is too complex to be fixed by a system administrator, our engineers are the ultimate backup.
In our opinion, a support contract for open source software is like an insurance. An insurance guarantees not only that a minor issue gets resolved, but even the worst case. An art insurance that only covers theft of a 10 euro portrait but not that Van Gogh is quite useless, too.
We get contacted by businesses who purchased ‘Nextcloud support’ from third party providers, had a bad experience, and blame us. A support contract where a customer pays for a system administrator to try and find a solution on our forums or ask our engineers on github is NOT a useful support contract for a business, and looks bad on us and the Nextcloud brand. This is not OK and thus we do NOT give permission to anyone who wants to offer services around Nextcloud to use our brand without our permission and support. So, if you as service provider wish to use the Nextcloud name and logo, run an unmodified Nextcloud server for your customer, with no custom apps or disabled/removed official apps. If you make such changes, don’t use our name. In case of doubt, just contact us.
You can use the Nextcloud marks to identify Nextcloud for Nextcloud Server downloads separately or as part of a Virtual Machine, docker image, installer, PHP server package or in another form as long as you have not made any modifications to Nextcloud Server itself. Modifications to the Nextcloud Server here are defined as those which would would require you to provide them in source form to any user who asks under the license of the AGPLv3. Note that pre-configuration and enabling or pre-installing Nextcloud apps from our app store are not considered changes or modifications to Nextcloud. But no app or functionality which is part of Nextcloud by default can be removed or disabled automatically, nor can ‘custom’ apps which are not in our app store be installed. If you do, the result is considered a modified version of Nextcloud which means branding has to be removed (see below). Two explicit examples. You can NOT disable the updater, the Files app, the Talk app (or prevent its installation by default), the support app, or install a custom theming app, or install a custom authentication app not on the app store and still use our brand.
If you do any of those things, you must remove the Nextcloud name and marks from the application user interface completely and give it your own brand. We do not wish users to confuse modified products from a third party with the official Nextcloud product. A hosting provider can thus provide a configured Nextcloud installation to its users as long as those can see a copyright and download notice and a link to nextcloud.com and as long as NO code changes are made, no non-appstore apps are installed and no apps are disabled. See below in the advertising section for how this service has to be described to users. Rather than offering Nextcloud Server unmodified, we suggest to link to our installation page to ensure users can always find the latest Nextcloud release. If you offer Nextcloud as part of a package, image or installer, please keep security issues in mind. Offering easy and convenient update capabilities will greatly benefit your users. Where possible, we suggest to make use of official Nextcloud packages or zip files and tarballs.
You can use the Nextcloud marks to identify Nextcloud for Nextcloud Server downloads separately or as part of a Virtual Machine, docker image, installer, PHP server package or in another form as long as you have not made any modifications to Nextcloud Server itself. Modifications to the Nextcloud Server here are defined as those which would would require you to provide them in source form to any user who asks under the license of the AGPLv3. Note that pre-configuration and enabling or pre-installing Nextcloud apps from our app store are not considered changes or modifications to Nextcloud. But no app or functionality which is part of Nextcloud by default can be removed or disabled automatically, nor can ‘custom’ apps which are not in our app store be installed. If you do, the result is considered a modified version of Nextcloud which means branding has to be removed (see below). Two explicit examples. You can NOT disable the updater, the Files app, the Talk app (or prevent its installation by default), the support app, or install a custom theming app, or install a custom authentication app not on the app store and still use our brand.
If you do any of those things, you must remove the Nextcloud name and marks from the application user interface completely and give it your own brand. We do not wish users to confuse modified products from a third party with the official Nextcloud product. A hosting provider can thus provide a configured Nextcloud installation to its users as long as those can see a copyright and download notice and a link to nextcloud.com and as long as NO code changes are made, no non-appstore apps are installed and no apps are disabled. See below in the advertising section for how this service has to be described to users. Rather than offering Nextcloud Server unmodified, we suggest to link to our installation page to ensure users can always find the latest Nextcloud release. If you offer Nextcloud as part of a package, image or installer, please keep security issues in mind. Offering easy and convenient update capabilities will greatly benefit your users. Where possible, we suggest to make use of official Nextcloud packages or zip files and tarballs.
The Nextcloud mobile clients are available on the Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) app stores. If you wish to distribute the iOS or Android client modified or unmodified on these stores you can not use ANY Nextcloud Mark other than what fair use allows and you must make sure that such stores are compatible with the respective Open Source license of such Nextcloud mobile app. This means you can NOT use the term “Nextcloud” in the name of your app. You MUST make clear that your app is NOT the official Nextcloud client and contains modifications from the original– if any. We reserve the right to demand you take down the Nextcloud client if you violate any of these provisions. For distributing the Nextcloud mobile clients on any other app store, please contact us.
The Nextcloud desktop client is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. If you wish to distribute the desktop client modified or unmodified you can not use ANY Nextcloud Mark other than what fair use allows. This means you can NOT use the term “Nextcloud” in the name of your client. You MUST make clear that your client is NOT the official Nextcloud client and contains modifications from the original. To obtain permission to distribute a modified or unmodified version of the Nextcloud desktop client with use of the Nextcloud marks, please contact us. Please do not link to our apps for use with a product that is seriously modified and thus not ‘Nextcloud’.
You are permitted to link to nextcloud.com from your web site. We have provided several logo graphics for you to choose from. To use these logos you must agree that:
You are welcome to make use of the Nextcloud marks to produce merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, bags, jackets, sweatshirts, mugs, and desktop wallpapers and give them to your friends, family, community members, provided there is no commercial interest behind it.
You are required to request permission if you want to commercially distribute articles using the Nextcloud marks or distribute them for promotion of your own commercial services (see Contact Information below to request permission). We are generally happy if a local Nextcloud promoting group wants to create and sell Nextcloud t-shirts to fund a local meetup, for example, so please just ask us!
If you want to include all or part of an Nextcloud Mark in a domain name, you should seek our permission (see Contact Information below to request permission). People naturally associate domain names with organizations whose names sound similar. Almost any use of an Nextcloud Mark in a domain name is likely to confuse someone, thus running afoul the overarching requirement that any use of an Nextcloud Mark not be confusing.
By “domain name” we mean to refer to toplevel domains and second-level domains, but not sub-domains. You can call your private or business Nextcloud server nextcloud.mycloud.com as you wish! For commercial purposes (a service provider hosting Nextcloud), do NOT include the Nextcloud mark in your domain name, anywhere, unless you received permission to do so.
We welcome the use of the Nextcloud marks in connection with user groups and other Nextcloud advocacy groups, but you may only do so in accordance with the following requirements:
It is permissible to use the Nextcloud marks to promote free and open source software events where individuals in the Nextcloud Community appear as advocates, demonstrating Nextcloud, giving talks, or otherwise represent the project, provided:
You do not misrepresent your relationship with the Nextcloud Community
You do not disparage the Nextcloud Community using the Nextcloud marks
Your use of the Nextcloud marks is not deceptive or false in any regard.
Individuals can be Nextcloud contributors, members of the wider Nextcloud community, or Nextcloud users.
If you want to include all or part of an Nextcloud Mark in the name of a publication such as a book or magazine, you need our permission (see Contact Information below to request permission). But you can use the Nextcloud Mark in a title of review inside a magazine, for example, as long as you use the Marks to refer to the official Nextcloud community or products.
You should not include an Nextcloud Mark in the name of your application, product or service, regardless of whether it is commercial or non-commercial in nature. This includes online services, such as e-commerce, community, blog, informational, promotional, and personal home page sites as well as Nextcloud apps, client apps or third party apps which interact with Nextcloud.
With that said, we consider it permissible to use an Nextcloud Mark in a file, folder, directory, or path name. We also recognize that the Nextcloud Community needs some way to identify projects, products, and services that are compatible with Nextcloud. Our concern is that users not be confused as to whether a compatible project, product, or service is official or not. To address that concern, we request that you indicate compatibility with Nextcloud using one of the following tag-lines:
You may use the Nextcloud marks in describing and advertising your Nextcloud-related product or services like training, development and support, on websites, marketing materials or on business cards to identify your affiliation with the Nextcloud Community, so long as:
We reserve the right to deny allowing your use of our trademark for any reason, including but not limited to a determination that your usage creates confusion for our users, damages or mis-represents our brand, is a breach of any of the stipulations above or for any other reason, at any time.
Explicit exemptions:
The use of the Nextcloud marks for the service “Nextcloud Enterprise” and our products: “Nextcloud Files”; “Nextcloud Groupware” and “Nextcloud Talk” are explicitly reserved for use by Nextcloud GmbH and certified partners. Online advertising is excempt from this permission, that is, you are not allowed to use keyword based online marketing campaigns like Google Adwords, Facebook ads and similar to advertise your Nextcloud services.
You can not include an Nextcloud Mark in the name of your company, business or product. It can not be used in (part of) a domain.
We welcome comment and constructive criticism, and we try to have a good sense of humor. It is fine to use the Nextcloud marks in your discussion, commentary, criticism, or parody, in ways that unequivocally do not imply endorsement. Please do not create mock or parody products with names based on the Nextcloud marks. Also, please be aware that, in our opinion, it is not “fair use” to use the Nextcloud marks in a manner that disparages Nextcloud technology or the Nextcloud Community.
All other uses of the Nextcloud marks need to be reserved by us, but we are available to discuss terms for use.
Please contact us if you need assistance regarding these guidelines, e.g. for discussing your case or requesting permission, by using our contact form.
These Guidelines are published under Version 3 of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License, and are derived in part from the openSUSE Trademark Guidelines (April 20, 2015), which in turn is derived in part from the OpenSolaris Trademark Policy 1.0 (May 5, 2008), the Ubuntu and Mozilla Trademark guidelines. We reserve the right to make changes to the guidelines at any time without notification. We last updated the guidelines on April 16 2020.