Trademarks | Adobe

General trademark guidelines

You may use Adobe trademarks (but not logos or taglines) to identify Adobe products, services, and programs on packaging, promotional, and advertising materials, provided you meet the following guidelines:

You may not include any Adobe trademark in your company name, product or service name, or domain name.
You may not include any Adobe trademark in your social media account name, page(s) or community, without written authorization from Adobe, except to describe the purpose by referring to the Adobe product (“Forum for Photoshop Users,” for example).
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 license from Adobe.
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
Your product name may not be confusingly similar to any Adobe trademark.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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). When using an Adobe trademark, mark it with a ™ or ® as shown in the Adobe trademark database for general distribution.
You may not shorten, abbreviate, or modify any Adobe trademark. Always spell out and capitalize Adobe’s trademarks exactly as they appear in the Adobe trademark database for general distribution.
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.”
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 capitalize 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.

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, either complete the online form or send an email to permissions@adobe.com. 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 program agreement or equivalent authorization, 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 programs offered through Partnering with Adobe. If you are not eligible for any of these logo programs, 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:

The subject of the publication, conference or seminar should be the specific Adobe product, service or technology to which the title refers.
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.
The Adobe trademarks may not be used in the stylized 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.
You may not use an Adobe trademark in the domain name of your publication, conference or seminar website without a written license or equivalent authorization from Adobe.
You may not shorten or abbreviate any of Adobe’s trademarks. Always spell and capitalize Adobe’s trademarks exactly as they appear in the Adobe trademark database for general distribution.
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."
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 AUTHORIZED, ENDORSED OR SPONSORED BY ADOBE, PUBLISHER OF [INSERT ADOBE PRODUCT NAME(S)].
You must otherwise comply with the guidelines for third parties who use Adobe's trademarks; and
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:

You may not incorporate or include any Adobe trademark in your company name, trade name, product name, domain name, or name of your service.
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 license or equivalent authorization from Adobe.
Your product or service name may not be confusingly similar to any Adobe trademark.
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.
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®.”
You must comply with the general trademark guidelines and the guidelines for third parties who use Adobe’s trademarks.

Proper use of the AIR trademark

AIR and Adobe AIR are trademarks of Adobe.You should use the AIR trademark solely to describe the Adobe AIR client runtime and related developer tools from Adobe. You should always use it as an adjective (“the Adobe AIR runtime,” for example) and in uppercase letters (AIR, not air or Air).

If your app, your company, your website or your service is related to Adobe’s AIR runtime software (for example, if your application was created for the Adobe AIR runtime or your website features applications developed for the Adobe AIR runtime), you cannot use the AIR or Adobe AIR trademark:

in the title of your application,
as your company name, trade name or DBA name,
in your domain name, or
in your service name,

except under a prior written license or equivalent authorization from Adobe.

You can refer to your application as an “Adobe AIR application” only as a statement that your developer application interoperates with Adobe AIR runtime software.

Correct: XYZ WidgetMaker for Adobe® AIR®

Correct: XYZ WidgetMaker: An Adobe® AIR® application

Correct: XYZ WidgetMaker: An application for Adobe® AIR®

Correct: XYZ WidgetMaker: Works with Adobe® AIR®

In the examples above, your own brand must appear larger and more conspicuous than the Adobe trademark, so that no one will be confused or misled as to the source of your product.

Incorrect: XYZ AIR WidgetMaker

Incorrect: ABC Adobe AIR WidgetMaker

Incorrect: AIRCool

Incorrect: AIRrific

Proper use of the Flash trademark

Adobe’s Flash trademark is used with the company’s platform of multimedia authoring and playback systems based on its family of Flash software products, also referred to as Flash technology. These products include the Flash Professional authoring tool, the Flash Builder software development tool and the Flash Player runtime software. Except for certain referential use, Adobe does not permit the use of the Flash trademark by companies other than Adobe for software, hardware, or other products related to Flash technology, unless the company has obtained a prior written license from Adobe to do so.

The Flash trademark must never be used as a generic term for animation, video, or any kind of file format or content. It should only be used as an adjective to describe an Adobe software product.

Companies who are not Adobe licensees but who claim to have technology that is compatible with Adobe Flash products may claim, if true, that their products are “compatible with Flash X” as long as nothing in the circumstances would create consumer confusion. Such companies may not use terms such as “Flash file,” Flash animation,” or “Flash video” in connection with their clone products or product output.

Third parties who implement products or services using Adobe’s SWF or FLV file format specification may not use “Flash” in the name of their product or service.

If your product or service fully complies with the SWF or FLV specification, you may refer to your product or service as “Flash Player compatible” or as featuring “Flash Player compatible output,” but not as “Flash enabled.”
You may not use “Flash files,” “Flash animation,” “Flash video,” “Flash video files,” “Flash content,” or similar expressions to refer to output files from your product or service or to files or content compatible with your product or service.
You should refer to output generated from an Adobe product like Flash Professional or Adobe Media Encoder as a .SWF file, a .FLV file, or as “Flash Play compatible” or “video for Adobe Flash Player.”
In communications, you should define the file format in the initial reference; afterwards you may use just the format extension (FLV playback, for example).

Example: Use Adobe Premiere Pro to export FLV files—the video format compatible with the Adobe Flash Player runtime.

For more information on the proper use of the Adobe Flash trademark, please refer to the Adobe Flash trademark guidelines.

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.