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- What is the purpose of the XenSource Trademark Policy?
- Have we gotten everything right?
- Who owns the Xen™ brand?
- To what product or products does XenSource apply the Xen™ brand?
- What is an Official Version?
- What is a Qualified Patch? What is a Faithful Implementation of the Xen™ hypervisor?
- How can I be sure that a hypervisor being distributed by a third party as the Xen™ hypervisor is, in fact, a Faithful Implementation?
- When one distributes a copy of the Xen™ hypervisor, how important is it to draw attention to the particular version of the Xen hypervisor being distributed?
- If I distribute an Official Version of the Xen™ hypervisor that is not bundled with other code or another product or service, may I say that the product I am distributing is the Xen hypervisor?
- If XenSource has released a particular Official Version of the Xen™ hypervisor only in source code form, but not as a compiled binary version, and I have compiled that Official Version into a binary version on a stand-alone basis, may I say that the binary version I am distributing is the Xen hypervisor?
- May one use the Xen™ brand to refer to code which XenSource posts as part of the xen-unstable tree?
- If I distribute an Official Version or a Faithful Implementation of the Xen™ hypervisor, may I use the Xen logo?
- If I deliver a Faithful Implementation of the Xen™ hypervisor in my product, may I use the “Includes Xen”™ logo in connection with that product?
- Does the XenSource Trademark Policy hinder my ability to deliver patches to my customers?
- What if I need to fix a bug in the field, before a Qualified Patch has been issued for that bug?
- If I distribute a changed version of the Xen™ hypervisor, may I say that the changed product is the Xen hypervisor?
- If I embed an unchanged Official Version of the Xen™ hypervisor into a bundled product, or combine it with other code to provide installation, run-time support (such as a Domain 0 operating system) or other vendor-specific bundling features, may I say that the product “includes the Xen hypervisor”?
- If I embed an unchanged version of the Xen™ hypervisor into a bundled product such as an operating system, may I use the Xen mark on that product?
- If I build or distribute a product which is not a hypervisor, but works with the Xen™ hypervisor, such as an operating system, may I say that my product works with, or is compatible with, the Xen hypervisor?
- If I distribute a changed version of the Xen™ hypervisor, or build a hypervisor product that is derived from the Xen hypervisor code, may I say that my product is “Xen-based” or “based on the Xen hypervisor”?
- If I provide support services for the Xen™ hypervisor, or distribute an unchanged version of the Xen hypervisor, can I use “Xen” as part of my company name?
- What impact does the XenSource Trademark Policy have on the GNU GPL License?
- What impact does the GNU GPL License have on my ability to use the Xen trademark?
- Who owns the copyrights in the Xen™ code base?
- May I use “xen” as part of my domain name?
- When must I show "proper attribution" of the Xen mark?
- I'm organizing a conference / writing a book about the Xen hypervisor. Can I use the word Xen in the title?
- What is the relationship between these FAQs and the XenSource Trademark Policy?
Because the Xen™ hypervisor is made available under open source licenses, it can be modified by anyone, at any time, provided that they comply with applicable licenses. This ability for the community to quickly develop new features is a key advantage of the Xen hypervisor, however arbitrary modifications to the code base that are not part of an officially released version could mislead customers who believe that they are purchasing or using an Official Version of the Xen hypervisor. Since the Xen code base represents an open source industry standard for virtualization, it is important to ensure that customers who acquire Xen™ branded products can do so with full confidence that the product they acquire meets XenSource quality control standards for, and faithfully implements, the Xen hypervisor. The success of the Xen hypervisor to date, and in the future, is based on the opportunity for ubiquitous availability of the same powerful feature set for virtualization that customers can rely on and vendors in the Xen ecosystem can confidently support in their products.
XenSource actively encourages vendors to deliver Official Versions of the Xen hypervisor to market as an embedded component of a their products. Since any such resulting product is not the Xen hypervisor itself, but a vendor-specific branded product (for example, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10), but many vendors have expressed a desire to brand their products as containing the Xen hypervisor, the trademark policy also describes the conditions under which a royalty free license to use the “Includes Xen” logo is offered to vendors in the Xen ecosystem that deliver Official Versions of the Xen hypervisor as part of Faithful Implementations. The terms of that license also require licensees to contribute any modifications to the Xen hypervisor (whether bug-fixes or feature enhancements) to the Xen open source project for the benefit of the community. Vendors that actively contribute their modifications to the community code base help to ensure ubiquitous availability of a single, powerful feature set, and build a strong market for best-of-breed, interoperable products. Customers will be able to rely on the Xen™ brands in their purchasing decisions.
While we have done our best to make these FAQs as comprehensive as possible, it is quite possible that we have not answered all of your questions, or considered a scenario that is unique to you. If you believe that to be the case, then we welcome you to contact us at
so that we may understand, and have an opportunity to address, your concerns.
XenSource owns the Xen™ brand, as well as various other related marks, including the Xen circle logo, the “Includes Xen” logo, the XenEnterprise™ and XenSource™ trademarks, and various applications to register those marks in the United States and around the world. Both the unregistered and registered marks of XenSource are protected under applicable trademark and other laws.
As more thoroughly described in the remainder of this document, XenSource offers vendors a royalty-free license to use the “Includes Xen” logo in connection with the delivery of a Faithful Implementation of the Xen hypervisor to market, provided that the vendor agrees to contribute all of its modifications (whether bug-fixes or feature enhancements) to the Xen open source project for the benefit of the community, and has otherwise complied with applicable license conditions.
The Xen™ brand applies to Official Versions of those hypervisor products previously released by XenSource or its predecessor-in-interest, the University of Cambridge, under that brand. The Xen™ brand also applies to Official Versions of any hypervisor or other products that XenSource may release in the future under that brand. The Official Versions are maintained and available for download at http://xenbits.xensource.com.
In keeping with the open development philosophy of the Xen community project, XenSource makes the development code-base which resides within the so-called “xen-unstable tree” available for continual download by the community. But only those releases that are given a unique version number by XenSource are Official Versions of the Xen hypervisor. Official Versions of the Xen hypervisor code have met the quality control procedures established by XenSource for the community distribution of the Xen hypervisor, and contain the feature set agreed by the Xen open source project leader designated by XenSource (Ian Pratt of XenSource) and the sub-maintainers designated by the Xen open source project leader.
Each version number assigned to an Official Version is formatted as V=x.y.z-p, where
- x is the major version, and specifies the version of the Xen hypercall API.
- y is the minor version, and increases monotonically with additional feature sets added to the code base. The feature roadmap is defined by the Xen project leader and the sub-maintainers.
- z is a point release that implements patch levels or minor revisions on any feature set.
- p is a bug fix release to a point release.
For example: version 3.0 means major version 3.0 of the Xen™ hypervisor; and version 3.0.3 means point release 3 for major release 3 where no minor versions have been released.
Each Official Version of the Xen hypervisor has a root R in the Xen project source repository maintained at xenbits.xensource.com, for example: http://xenbits.xensource.com/xen-3.0-testing.hg, where “3.0-testing” is the tree for the 3.0 version of the Xen hypervisor that is stable. The “testing” status denotes that the feature set is stable, and no new features are being added to it, but that XenSource and the community are continuing to test for latent bugs. From Official Version 3.0.3 onwards, the root for version a.b.c will be R=http://xenbits.xensource.com/xen-a.b.c-testing.hg.
When the Xen open source project leader designates a particular snapshot of the development code as an Official Version, the applicable source code is swept into a tree named with the appropriate major, minor and point release numbers, and tagged with the modifier “testing”. At that time, the version number, tags and changeset are uniquely stamped into the repository. Based on the changeset number associated with an Official Version, a user can obtain all of the unique files which constitute that particular Official Version – also called the manifest.
By contrast, the so-called “xen-unstable” tree is the constantly evolving development code base that is a work-in-progress towards some future Official Version, and is by definition unreliable. Because this prototype code is potentially buggy, has undergone little or no testing, and may not be interoperable with any Official Version of the Xen hypervisor, such code does not have a version number assigned to it, so any snapshot of that code is not an Official Version and is not branded with the Xen trademark. The tree at xenbits.xensource.com named xen-unstable.hg is the current unstable development version of the code base.
Each Official Version of the Xen hypervisor is a snapshot of the Xen project code base maintained at xenbits.xensource.com for that named version. It includes a mandatory code manifest, which is a code base for the specific version V, maintained in the repository based at its root R.
The code manifest will change between Official Versions, as features are added to Xen. The ultimate decision as to the manifest for any Official Version lies with the Xen open source project leader. Identifying the code manifest required for an Official Version is simple: check the repository at xenbits.xensource.com for that Official Version.
For example, in the case of the Xen™ version 3.0.2 release, the Official Version is the entire, unchanged codebase released by XenSource as Xen 3.0.2, whether in source or binary form. No single module or file, and no set of modules or files less than the entire set of modules or files released as the Xen hypervisor 3.0.2, is the Xen-branded product. Thus, for example, while the hypercall API is a single component of the Xen™ hypervisor and remains freely distributable, one cannot say that only the hypercall API itself constitutes version 3.0 of the Xen™ hypervisor.
A “Qualified Patch” is a bug fix or other minor patch for one or more Official Version(s) of the Xen hypervisor that is submitted to the Xen open source project, accepted as a valid patch for incorporation into the Xen open source code base, and back-ported to the relevant Official Version(s) to which they apply. Any patch that is back-ported to an Official Version is a Qualified Patch. Once a patch has been back-ported to an Official Version, that particular Official Version then includes such Qualified Patch.
A “Faithful Implementation” of the Xen hypervisor combines the unchanged code of an Official Version (including any Qualified Patches for that Official Version) with other software to provide installation, run-time support (such as a Domain 0 OS) and other vendor-specific bundling features, but does not change the code base or any feature set of the embedded or otherwise integrated Official Version. A Faithful Implementation does not include add-ons or any other changes to the code in the manifest of the Official Version. This requirement is necessary to comply with XenSource's minimum feature set and quality control standards for the Xen hypervisor, no matter how it is delivered to market. For a Faithful Implementation, Qualified Patches are the only permitted changes to the code base of an Official Version in any distribution of the Xen hypervisor.
The Xen hypervisor will be distributed to customers by numerous vendors. Examples include XenSource, in its XenEnterprise™ product and Novell, Inc., with its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, both of which are Faithful Implementations of the Xen hypervisor. In the latter case, the Xen hypervisor is an embedded component in the SUSE Enterprise Linux distribution of Novell. While it is important to the success of the Xen community and the IT industry to provide customer choice by embedding the Xen hypervisor in a wide range of product offerings, it is equally important that those embedded distributions of the Xen hypervisor deliver Faithful Implementations of the Xen feature set.
XenSource retains the sole right to inspect and determine whether or not any implementation is a Faithful Implementation. Since the Xen hypervisor is available under GPL, all implementations must make source code available, and XenSource will from time to time inspect vendors' products to ensure that vendors who claim that their product is, or includes, the Xen™ hypervisor have actually delivered an Official Version.
New versions of the Xen hypervisor are released on a fairly frequent basis. Because code and functionality differ from release to release, each Official Version of the Xen hypervisor is numbered according to a release number. In order to avoid confusion as to the functionality of any particular version, it is important for anyone who distributes a copy of the Xen hypervisor to indicate the Official Version release number for the distributed copy.
Yes. Of course, you must also identify the specific version number of the Xen hypervisor release which you are making available. Versioning numbers for the Xen code are available in the Xen code base repository (xenbits.xensource.com). In addition, you must note that Xen is a trademark of XenSource, Inc. and be careful not to use the Xen™ brand in any way that states or implies an association with XenSource, Inc. Finally, if you distribute the Xen hypervisor on physical media, you must provide each licensee with a warranty for the distribution media.
Yes, as long as the compiled version is a Faithful Implementation of that Official Version.
No. XenSource is committed to open development of the Xen hypervisor, so it makes the currently evolving development version of the Xen hypervisor available to the community in the xen-unstable tree, on a continual basis. The unstable tree contains a work-in-progress, pre-release prototype of the Xen hypervisor that is not stable, and has not been tested or vetted in any way, other than minimal developer testing. The development tree, as a continually evolving body of code, should never be offered as a product, since it is impossible for a customer to rely on the presence of specific features or the quality of the code.
While the Xen™ text brand may be used to identify a complete and unchanged Official Version of the Xen hypervisor, you may not use the Xen™ brand in connection with any code derived from an unstable snapshot of the code base, since the use of the brand in relation to such a code base could mislead customers into believing that the snapshot is an Official Version.
No. Even if describing an Official Version of the Xen hypervisor, whether on a stand-alone basis or as part of a Faithful Implementation, you may use the company's trademarks only to the extent reasonably necessary to identify the product. Because the word “Xen” and other text marks owned by XenSource are sufficient to identify true XenSource products, you may not use the Xen circle logo or other design marks without an express license from XenSource, Inc. Additionally, your use of the company's text marks must not suggest sponsorship or endorsement by XenSource, Inc., unless permitted by a separate license agreement with XenSource, Inc.
So, when we say in these FAQs that you may use the Xen™ brand to accurately identify an Official Version or Faithful Implementation of the Xen hypervisor, we are referring solely to factual uses of the text versions of the Xen mark, not any Xen logo. But, XenSource offers a license to use the “Includes Xen” logo on a royalty-free basis under the circumstances described in the FAQ that immediately follows this one.
Yes, provided that you contribute all of your modifications (whether bug-fixes or feature enhancements) to the Xen open source project for the benefit of the community, have delivered to XenSource an executed copy of the license agreement provided to you by XenSource, and otherwise have complied with the terms and conditions of that license agreement.
Not at all. It is vitally important that any vendor be able to support its customers. Since the Xen hypervisor is made available under open source licenses, you are always free to deliver patches to your customers, provided that you do so in accordance with the terms and conditions of applicable copyright licenses. If you deliver a Qualified Patch to an Official Version which you previously delivered to a customer on a stand-alone basis, you may accurately state that you are delivering a Xen patch. If you deliver a Qualified Patch to an Official Version which you previously embedded in a product which Faithfully Implemented the Xen hypervisor at the time of delivery, you may accurately state that you are delivering a Xen patch for the Xen hypervisor which is included within that product. And, if you have a current license from XenSource to use the “Includes Xen” logo and otherwise are in compliance with the terms of the “Includes Xen” logo license agreement, you may also use the “Includes Xen” logo in connection with your delivery of a Qualified Patch.
But, if you deliver any patch which is not a Qualified Patch, you may not identify the patch as a Xen patch.
We understand that fixing bugs on the fly and in the field is a reality for those who deliver software to customers. In fact, we rely on the Xen open source community to let us know about those bugs and to propose patches to those bugs. So, when you or a customer have identified an unwanted and unintended property of an Official Version that must be corrected to allow you to support your customer, but a Qualified Patch for that bug is not available, we consider your delivery of a patch for that bug to be part of a Faithful Implementation of the Xen hypervisor, provided that: (a) your product constitutes a Faithful Implementation in all other respects; (b) you contribute your patch to the Xen open source project (subject to the applicable open source license) for consideration as a possible Qualified Patch; and (c) you deliver any Qualified Patches for the Official Version you use, to your customer with your next service-pack or product upgrade.
This is the only exception to the rule that, for a Faithful Implementation, Qualified Patches are the only permitted changes to the code base of an Official Version in any distribution of the Xen hypervisor. Adding new features, or changing the code base for any reason other than correcting an unwanted and unintended property of an Official Version, does not constitute fixing a bug.
No. If you have changed an Official Version of the Xen hypervisor in any way, then you have created something that is not an Official Version of the Xen hypervisor. Because such a code base is entirely beyond the oversight and quality control processes of XenSource, you may not use the Xen™ trademark in any way in connection with your product, and must use a different trademark for your product that will not cause confusion with the Xen trademark or any other XenSource trademark. This means that you may not name your product “Xen” or otherwise use the Xen™ trademark on your product, or in related advertising or other marketing activities. You may not say or imply that your product contains, includes or is derived from the Xen™ hypervisor, or is otherwise sponsored or approved by XenSource, as this would likely cause confusion among consumers. You must also modify the software files by removing all images which contain a “Xen” trademark. Please note that merely deleting those files may corrupt the software.
Yes, you may accurately state that the product “includes the Xen hypervisor”, as long as the Xen hypervisor is Faithfully Implemented, and the software with which you have bundled the Xen hypervisor does not disable, change or otherwise affect the functionality or feature set of the Xen hypervisor. You must also be careful not to use the Xen™ brand in any way that states or implies an association with XenSource, Inc. (unless, of course, XenSource has granted you the right to do so under a separate, signed license agreement). Thus, you should follow the guidelines with respect to proper attribution discussed below. You should also identify the version of the Xen hypervisor that your product includes.
You may not use the “Includes Xen”™ logo unless you have contributed all of your modifications to an Official Version (whether bug-fixes or feature enhancements) to the Xen open source project for the benefit of the community, delivered to XenSource an executed copy of the license agreement provided to you by XenSource for the “Includes Xen” logo, and are otherwise in compliance with the terms and conditions of that license agreement.
No. You may not use the Xen mark or any other XenSource trademarks to denote the product bundle, as a whole, even if the embedded version is a Faithful Implementation.
However, you may use the “Includes Xen” logo on your bundled product if you have contributed all of your modifications (whether bug-fixes or feature enhancements) to the Xen open source project for the benefit of the community, delivered to XenSource an executed copy of the license agreement provided to you by XenSource for the “Includes Xen” logo, and have otherwise complied with the terms and conditions of that license agreement.
Yes, provided you do so in an honest and factually descriptive way, and are careful not to use the Xen™ brand in any way that states or implies an association with XenSource, Inc. (unless, of course, XenSource has granted you the right to do so under a separate, signed agreement). You are also encouraged to participate in XenSource's interoperability initiative for Xen guests and hypervisors. For more information, please send an email to
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No, as this would likely cause confusion among consumers. Although it factually may be true that your hypervisor product includes code which also is included in an Official Version of the Xen hypervisor, to say that your product is “Xen-based” or “based on the Xen hypervisor” would mislead consumers into believing that your product in some fashion has met the quality control standards of XenSource for the Xen hypervisor or includes the feature set of the Xen hypervisor. A hypervisor product has not met the quality control and feature set standards of XenSource for the Xen hypervisor unless released by XenSource as an Official Version of the Xen hypervisor.
No, as this would likely cause confusion among consumers, and create the false impression that you or your services are associated or otherwise endorsed by XenSource.
None – your rights under the GPL License are based on copyright law. You may copy, modify and distribute the code which makes up the Xen hypervisor as permitted by the GPL License.
None – the GPL License is a copyright license which permits you to copy, modify and distribute the code which makes up the Xen hypervisor. However, the GPL License does not include an implied or express trademark license.
The authors of the code own their copyrights. The Xen project does not require copyright assignment from developers or their employers, but does require use of the kernel.org “signed-off by” procedure to identify authors.
You may not use “xen” as part of your domain name if your intention is to trade on XenSource goodwill in the “Xen” brand, or your domain name connects to a website that promotes goods or services which are related in any way to the Xen hypervisor or any other hypervisor.
Whether using the term “Xen” in print, on the Internet, or in audio broadcasts, you should always give proper attribution to XenSource, Inc., the owner of the trademark. Proper attribution must always be in the form of a complete sentence, and must ordinarily be placed in a visible place in the material referencing the Xen trademark, e.g., on the copyright page of a document, on the bottom of a web page, on a website's trademark policy page, or on product packaging. The following attribution statement must be used in all material referencing a Xen trademark:
"Xen”™ is a trademark of XenSource, Inc. in the United States and other countries."
Yes, we encourage academic and research use of the Xen hypervisor, and related publication, discussion forums, conferences and other public discussion of the Xen hypervisor. The community relies on independent innovation and contribution, in which academic research plays a major part. You may use the Xen word mark in connection with a book title, magazine, periodical, seminar, or conference, provided you comply with the following requirements:
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The use is referential and less prominent than the rest of the title. Also, Xen is not the leading word of the title. For example, "Virtual University Workshop for Xen in HPC Clusters" would be acceptable.
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The University name and logo appear more prominently than the Xen word mark on all materials related to the publication, seminar or conference.
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You must have written permission from XenSource to use Xen logo or any other XenSource-owned graphic symbol on any materials related to the publication, seminar, or conference.
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A disclaimer of sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement by XenSource, similar to the following, is included on ads for the workshop/publication and on related printed materials: "Xen is a trademark of XenSource, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The Virtual University Workshop for XEN in HPC Clusters is an independent workshop and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by XenSource, Inc."
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A trademark attribution notice is included in the credit section giving notice of XenSource's ownership of its trademark(s).
These FAQs use examples as a way of explaining the policies set forth in the XenSource Trademark Policy. If you have any questions about the FAQs, please contact us at legal@xensource.com.
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