Trademark Policy

Effective October 9, 2026

The Cascade Protocol specification and its open-source tools are free to use. The specification is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, and the SDKs, command-line tools and conformance suite are published under the Apache License 2.0. You can read, implement, fork and build on all of it.

The name is different. CASCADE PROTOCOL™ and the Cascade Protocol logo are trademarks of Cascade Agentic Labs LLC, and a U.S. trademark application is pending. Neither open license grants rights in the name or logo (Apache 2.0 says so in section 6). This policy explains how you can use them. Its purpose is simple: when someone sees "Cascade Protocol," they should be able to trust that it means the real specification, or software that actually implements it.

What you can do without asking

• Describe what your software does. "Stores records in the Cascade Protocol format," "built on the Cascade Protocol," "supports Cascade Protocol pods," "an implementation of the Cascade Protocol in Rust."
• Write and talk about it. Articles, blog posts, tutorials, talks, research papers, course material and documentation can use the name to refer to the protocol.
• Redistribute the official software unchanged. Unmodified copies of our packages can keep their names.
• Use the name as a keyword or tag. Package-registry keywords, repository topics and search tags such as cascade-protocol are fine, as long as your package's own name doesn't suggest it is ours.

Use the name accurately, and don't suggest that Cascade Agentic Labs made, sponsors or endorses your work unless we have agreed to that.

Compatibility claims

The phrases "Cascade Protocol compatible" and "Cascade Protocol conformant" (and close variants) are claims that your implementation behaves as the specification requires. You may use them only if:

• your implementation passes the conformance suite for the parts of the specification it claims to support, and
• you name the version you tested against, for example "Cascade Protocol compatible (core v3.12)."

If a later release of your software stops passing, stop making the claim for that release. We may introduce a formal certification program later; until then, please don't use "certified."

What needs permission

• Product, company, package and domain names. Don't use "Cascade Protocol," or a name likely to be confused with it, as or within the name of your product, service, organization, software package or domain. "Acme Health Vault, built on the Cascade Protocol" is fine. "Cascade Protocol Health Vault" is not.
• Modified specifications and forks. If you change the specification or fork the project, give it a different name. You can say it is "based on" or "derived from" the Cascade Protocol.
• Modified official software. If you distribute a modified version of one of our packages, rename it so people don't mistake it for the official release. "A fork of the Cascade Protocol CLI" is fine as a description.
• The logo. Please ask before using it, and don't alter it or combine it with your own marks.
• Merchandise. Shirts, stickers and the like need permission.

How to write the name

• Write it as "Cascade Protocol" or "the Cascade Protocol," with both words capitalized.
• Use it as a name for the specification and its official software, not as a generic word for health-data formats.
• You don't need to add ™ when you mention it, though we appreciate it in prominent places.

Asking permission and reporting misuse

Email trademarks@cascadeagenticlabs.com to ask for permission, request logo files, or tell us about a use that seems misleading. We're glad to help community projects, user groups and events use the name.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the project grows, for example if stewardship of the protocol moves to an independent foundation. The current version will always be on this page.