Bluesky recently acquired the rights to the trademark for “ATPROTOCOL” and its variants—including “AT Protocol” and “atproto”—from another company that was threatening to take legal action preventing the company and others from using the term. Now that Bluesky owns it, the atproto community’s continued use of the mark can be protected.
Given the nature of what we’re trying to accomplish with the protocol, it can feel a bit weird when lawyers get involved. We’re trying to shield atproto developers from having all their hard work undone by someone abusing the legal system. That really is it.
You can read a bit more about it on the new trademarks page or read the full policy (as far as legal documents go, this one’s pretty tidy; Bluesky’s lawyers are the best).
I’ve worked with Bluesky’s legal team to put together the FAQ below. If you have questions not answered here, feel free to reach out to trademarks@atproto.com .
Is Bluesky going to start charging for a license to use atproto? No, this is primarily a defensive measure. Our crack legal team tells me if you don’t enforce your mark, then anyone can come along and claim it. We acquired the rights and are going to defend it from bad actors while making it freely available to the ecosystem. Discussions about licensing fees will only arise if a commercial enterprise wants to use the mark (for profit) as part of its branding or product offerings.
Do I need a license? Most everyday use cases don't require a license. You can create projects that refer to the protocol, say your app is compatible with atproto (as long as it actualy is!), discuss it in the community, write docs, even name open source packages or tooling (such as atproto-feed-tool or "AT Protocol SDK"). In general, be descriptive, be accurate, don't imply your implementation is official or endorsed, and keep your own name or brand at least as prominent as the mark.