Trademarks

The trademarks, service marks, and trade dress of Rubicon Communications LLC d/b/a Netgate (“Netgate”) and Electric Sheep Fencing LLC (“ESF”) may not be used without the prior express written permission of an officer or director of Netgate or ESF (a) in connection with any product or service that is not Netgate or ESF’s, (b) in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, (c) in such a manner that may weaken or dilute Netgate or ESF’s rights in the trademarks, service marks or trade dress, or the goodwill therein, or (d) in any manner that disparages or discredits Netgate or ESF.

Netgate and ESF also own domestic and international rights to the trademarks, service marks, and trade dress depicted by or in the graphics, logos, page headers, button icons, scripts, and service names included in or made available through Netgate and ESF product and service offerings.

All other trademarks or service marks not owned by Netgate or ESF that may appear in any products or services offered are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by Netgate or ESF.

ESF Marks -

ESF marks include but are not limited to the following:

PFSENSE® (U.S. Reg. Nos. 3571276 and 4414546)

PFSENSE® (International Reg. No. 1176766)

Netgate® Marks -

Netgate marks include but are not limited to the following:

NETGATE® (U.S. Reg. Nos. 3161285, 3146119 and 5319789)

TNSR® (U.S. Reg. No. 5942018)

Trademark Usage Guidelines for Third-Party Deliverables

Intellectual property rights, including trademarks and service marks, and the goodwill represented thereby, are important corporate assets. To help maintain these rights, it is necessary to properly use the Netgate brand. The following guidelines help protect those rights by ensuring consistent use of terminology.

Using Trademarks Properly

Netgate and ESF require that you use trademarks properly in the following manner:

• Remember that a trademark or service mark, when properly used, functions as an adjective in a sentence. Therefore, appropriate use of a mark in a sentence will be followed by a noun or generic descriptor, such as “Netgate® software,” “pfSense® software, or “Netgate® firewall.”

• Do not use the mark in plural or possessive forms (Netgates or “Netgate’s”).

• Do not separate the mark (Net Gate or PF Sense).

• Use the registered mark symbol ® next to the last “E” in Netgate and next to the last “E” in pfSense on the most prominent usage per page (such as in banners, captions, headers, etc.).

If you have any questions regarding trademark usage not covered in this guide, contact legal@netgate.com.

 

Rules for Trademark Symbol Usage

The following sections explain the requirements for using legends that provide legal protection for intellectual property assets. Netgate and ESF rely upon U.S. and foreign registrations and common law (unregistered) rights to protect its trademarks. Appropriate symbols should be used to indicate the status of its trademarks.

In the case of registered marks, you should acknowledge them and indicate their status by including a registered trademark symbol (®) after the first instance of the trademark within the most prominent usage on a document or on the most prominent usage per page (in materials such as websites).

For trademarks that are not registered, use the common law trademark symbol (™) for products, or “SM” for services, after the first and most prominent instance of the mark’s use within a document or on each page of a website.

 

Trademark Status

As of the date of these guidelines, you should use the appropriate symbols with the following marks:

Netgate®

pfSense®

TNSR®

The Netgate “N” symbol:

The Netgate “N” symbol locked up with the Netgate wordmark (the Netgate logo):

 

Company Name Usage

The full legal company names are “Rubicon Communications LLC” and “Electric Sheep Fencing LLC.” The NETGATE and PFSENSE marks are not interchangeable with the company names. Proper attribution of rights is as follows (if use has been authorized in writing, then please contact legal@netgate.com for proper language reflecting such authorization):

pfSense® is a registered mark owned by Electric Sheep Fencing LLC (“ESF”) and may not be used without the prior express written permission of ESF.

Netgate® is a registered mark owned by Rubicon Communications LLC and may not be used without the prior express written permission of Rubicon Communications LLC.

Last updated on June 28, 2021