General trademark guidelines

1. You may not include any Adobe trademark in your company name, product or service name or domain name.
2. You may not include any Adobe trademark in your social media account name, page(s) or community, without written authorisation from Adobe, except to describe the purpose by referring to the Adobe product (“Forum for Photoshop Users,” for example).
3. You may not include any Adobe logo or product icon design, whole or in part, in your company logo, your product logo, your app launch tile image, in your software product or service or in your social media account, page(s) or community images without a prior written licence from Adobe.
4. You should use an appropriate generic term after an Adobe trademark the first time it appears in a publication and as often as possible after that. See examples of appropriate generic terms for use with Adobe trademarks
5. Your product name may not be confusingly similar to any Adobe trademark.
6. You may not use any Adobe trademark on or in connection with any obscene or pornographic materials and your use of any Adobe trademark may not be disparaging, defamatory or libelous to Adobe, any of its products or any person or entity.
7. You may not use Adobe trademarks in any manner that directly or indirectly expresses or implies Adobe sponsorship, affiliation, certification, approval or endorsement in relation to your product or service or in such a manner that it appears that Adobe is legally associated with your company.
8. You may not use any Adobe trademark, including web logos or any other Adobe logo trademark, on or in connection with a website that provides download links for a fee (whether directly or indirectly via a subscription model or the like) for any Adobe product or service, especially for freeware, such as Adobe® Reader® software or an Adobe web player product, without the express written permission of Adobe.
9. An Adobe trademark may not be the most prominent visual element on packaging, a download page, app store marketing or other marketing materials for your product or service. Your company name or logo, your product or service name and your graphic identity should be significantly larger than any Adobe trademark.
10. If you refer to an Adobe product, you should use the full name of the product in the first and most prominent reference (Adobe Acrobat software, for example). Refer to the Adobe trademark database for general distribution.
11. You may not shorten, abbreviate or modify any Adobe trademark. Always spell out and capitalise Adobe’s trademarks exactly as they appear in the Adobe trademark database for general distribution.
12. You should include the following trademark attribution statement: “[List of marks used, with ‘Adobe’ first, if used, followed by other Adobe marks used, in alphabetical order] are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries.”
13. You should follow the basic rules for proper trademark use. Adobe’s Photoshop trademark is used in the following examples:

Trademarks are not verbs.
Correct: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
Incorrect: The image was photoshopped.

Trademarks are not nouns.
Correct: The image pokes fun at the Senator
Incorrect: The photoshop pokes fun at the Senator.

Always capitalise and use trademarks in their correct form.
Correct: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software.
Incorrect: The image was photoshopped.
Incorrect: The image was Photoshopped.
Incorrect: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped.

Trademarks must never be used as slang terms.
Correct: Those who use Adobe® Photoshop® software to manipulate images as a hobby see their work as an art form.
Incorrect: A photoshopper sees his hobby as an art form.
Incorrect: My hobby is photoshopping.

Trademarks must never be used in possessive form.
Correct: The new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software are impressive.
Incorrect: Photoshop’s new features are impressive.

Trademarks are proper adjectives and should be followed by the generic terms they describe.
Correct: The image was manipulated using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
Incorrect: The image was manipulated using Photoshop.

Trademarks must never be abbreviated.
Correct: Take a look at the new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software.
Incorrect: Take a look at the new features in PS.

The trademark owner should be identified whenever possible.
Adobe and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries.

14. Your use of Adobe trademarks must otherwise comply with the guidelines for third parties who use Adobe’s trademarks.

Third-party developers of plug-ins and extensions for Adobe products may need to comply with additional guidelines. All other requests require written permission. If other permission is required, complete the online form. Allow two weeks for your request to be processed.

List of Adobe trademarks

For your reference, here is a list of Adobe trademarks

Logos

Unless you are licensed by Adobe under a specific licensing programme agreement or equivalent authorisation, use of Adobe logos, such as the Adobe corporate logo or an Adobe product logo, is not allowed. You may qualify for use of certain logos under the programmes offered through Partnering with Adobe. If you are not eligible for any of these logo programmes, you may be eligible to use one of Adobe's web logos instead. See linking to Adobe's website. Or you may choose to simply refer to an Adobe product as described in the general trademark guidelines.

Use of Adobe trademarks in titles of publications, conferences and seminars

Adobe trademarks may be used in the titles of publications, conferences and seminars that provide in-depth training on Adobe products or technology beyond that available from Adobe product tutorials, training and reference material. Publishers of such publications and hosts of such conferences or seminars do not need to obtain further permission from Adobe if the use of Adobe trademarks complies with all of the following requirements:

1. The subject of the publication, conference or seminar should be the specific Adobe product, service or technology to which the title refers.
2. The Adobe trademarks may not appear larger or more prominent than the rest of the full publication, conference or seminar title and your name or logo should be displayed more prominently on the cover of the publication and in all materials related to the conference or seminar.
3. The Adobe trademarks may not be used in the stlylised form used by Adobe and no Adobe logos, taglines or Adobe product imagery may be used on your publication’s cover or your publication, conference or seminar’s website, advertising or promotional material, without express written permission from Adobe.
4. You may not use an Adobe trademark in the domain name of your publication, conference or seminar website without a written licence or equivalent authorisation from Adobe.
5. You may not shorten or abbreviate any of Adobe’s trademarks. Always spell and capitalise Adobe’s trademarks exactly as they appear in the Adobe trademark database for general distribution.
6. You must include the following trademark attribution statement: "[List of marks used, with 'Adobe' first, if used, followed by other Adobe marks used, in alphabetical order] are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries."
7. You must include a conspicuous disclaimer, preferably on the front or back cover of your publication, but at a minimum, it must appear on the copyright page of the publication or on the website of your conference or seminar and state in all capital letters: THIS PRODUCT [or TITLE OF PUBLICATION, CONFERENCE or SEMINAR] IS NOT AUTHORISED, ENDORSED OR SPONSORED BY ADOBE, PUBLISHER OF [INSERT ADOBE PRODUCT NAME(S)].
8. You must otherwise comply with the guidelines for third parties who use Adobe's trademarks; and
9. There should be nothing else in the use of Adobe trademarks or in the circumstances that would lead consumers to believe there is an association with, or endorsement by, Adobe that does not exist and the Adobe trademarks should be used only to refer to the Adobe products that are the subject of the publication, conference or seminar.

Guidelines for third-party developers of Adobe plug-ins and extensions

If you are a developer of a plug-in or extension for an Adobe product, you may use Adobe trademarks in a referential manner on packaging, websites, promotional and advertising materials to give notice that your product is compatible with the referenced Adobe product or technology, provided you meet the following guidelines:

1. You may not incorporate or include any Adobe trademark in your company name, trade name, product name, domain name or name of your service.
2. You may not include any Adobe trademark or Adobe logo, product icon design or product imagery, in whole or in part, in your company logo, your product logo, your app launch icon or launcher tile image or otherwise in your software product or service without a prior written licence or equivalent authorisation from Adobe.
3. Your product or service name may not be confusingly similar to any Adobe trademark.
4. If you state that your product is compatible with an Adobe product, the product must in fact be compatible with that Adobe product and otherwise work with that Adobe product as intended and described in the documentation of your product.
5. Any notice that your product is compatible with an Adobe product or technology must be made in a referential manner such as “for use with,” “for,” or “compatible with.” Example: “[Your product name] plug-in for Adobe Photoshop®” or “ABC extension for Adobe Dreamweaver®.”
6. You must comply with the general trademark guidelines and the guidelines for third parties who use Adobe’s trademarks.

Proper use of the Photoshop trademark

Trademarks help protect corporate and product identity and the Photoshop trademark is one of Adobe’s most valuable trademarks. By following these guidelines, you can help Adobe protect the Photoshop brand name.

You must never use the Photoshop trademark as a common verb (‘to photoshop an image,” as an example of such incorrect use) or as a noun. Since Photoshop is a trademark, you should always use it as an adjective only to describe the Adobe products associated with the Photoshop brand. And you should always use the Photoshop trademark with an initial capital letter “P.” Please see the examples of the proper use of the Photoshop trademark in the “General trademark guidelines ” section above.

For more information on the proper use of Adobe’s trademarks, refer to the general trademark guidelines.

Other resources

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