Trademark Policy

This policy is separate from, and independent of, our software license. The source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (see COPYING), and nothing here changes or restricts your rights under that license. You may use, study, modify, and redistribute our code freely. What this policy restricts is use of our names. Trademark law, not copyright law, governs such use, and the GPL does not restrict or otherwise affect trademark rights.

Why we care

A modified program build that behaves differently but is still called “WSJT-X” — or is versioned as though it were an official release, e.g. “MAP65 4.0” or “QMAP 1.0” — creates user confusion and potential interoperability problems, not just a branding dispute. It also leaves users unable to tell which builds we stand behind, support, and have actually tested, and who the authors may be.

Actions allowed

• Redistributing exact, unmodified binaries built from our official source releases, under our program names.
• Packaging our unmodified software for a distro, OS, or platform, including the minor, purely mechanical patches that packaging sometimes requires (build-flag changes, path fixes, dependency-version bumps and the like), without renaming — provided the program's behavior and on-air protocol handling are unchanged. (Use of an appended revision number like “2.7.0-1” is acceptable, but replacement of the real version number with a fabricated one like “4.0” is not.)
• Forking, modifying, and redistributing the source code under the GPL — including studying it, building on it, and shipping your own version — provided you follow the renaming rule below.
• Saying your fork is “based on WSJT-X” (or MAP65, or QMAP) — that's just true, and we want people to know your fork's heritage.

Forbidden without renaming

• Distributing a version with functional changes — new features, changed behavior, or altered protocol handling — under our names (“WSJT-X”, “MAP65”, “QMAP”) or any confusingly similar variant of them (e.g. “WSJT-X Improved”, “WSJT-X Plus”).
• Assigning your own version number within our numbering sequence, e.g. calling a modified fork “MAP65 4.0” or “QMAP 1.0” when we have not released any such version. This applies regardless of whether the underlying code changed.
• Using our names, or names confusingly similar to them, for a differently-behaving program in a way that could lead users, on the air or in software listings, to believe it is our software or is endorsed by us.

If you've made functional changes, please pick a distinct name — you're welcome to describe your project as “based on WSJT-X code” or “a fork of QMAP.”

Questions or concerns

If you're unsure whether a planned use is fine, or want to flag a misuse you've found, please open an issue or contact the WSJT Development Team.

This is not a substitute for legal advice. It describes how we intend to use and enforce our trademarked program names in practice.