Brand & trademark usage

Short version. Naming Ficelle and linking to it needs no permission. Listing it as a provider in your app, documenting the endpoint and writing about it are all granted below. Ask us first before using “Powered by Ficelle”, putting our mark inside your own logo, or shipping Ficelle inside your installer. One email is enough: support@ficelle.ai.

Why this page exists

The Business Source License 1.1 covers the code. It says in its own terms that it grants no right in our trade marks or logos. This page is the missing half: a standing, public permission for the name and logos, so you can integrate Ficelle without waiting on an answer from us. It is a permission, not a contract, and it creates no partnership, agency or joint venture.

The Ficelle name and logos are owned by THE BLUE HOUSE (SASU); see the legal notice. Nothing here limits what the law already allows you to do: describing your own product accurately, comparative advertising, reporting and criticism do not need our permission. When in doubt, prefer honest description over silence.

1. Naming Ficelle, already granted

You may do all of this without contacting us:

• list Ficelle as a provider, backend or endpoint option in your product’s interface, settings or model picker;
• document how to point an OpenAI-compatible client at Ficelle’s local endpoint (http://127.0.0.1:8646/v1);
• say “works with Ficelle”, “compatible with Ficelle” or “supports Ficelle”;
• publish tutorials, comparisons, benchmarks or reviews, including unfavourable ones.

Four conditions, all of them about not misleading your users:

• Keep it accurate and current. If your support breaks or is removed, correct the claim.
• Don’t imply an endorsement you don’t have. “Works with Ficelle” states a fact about your product; “official Ficelle partner” states a fact about us.
• Don’t build your identity on the name. Keep it out of your company name, your domain, your social handles, and the name of anything you charge for.
• Write it as Ficelle: capital F, never translated, never pluralised. Where practical, link the first prominent mention to https://ficelle.ai.

One deliberate exception to that third condition: an integration you don’t charge for, whether or not its source is open, may be named for what it does, such as “Ficelle for Obsidian” or “Ficelle provider for <your app>”. It only has to say plainly, somewhere a user will actually see it, that it is unofficial and not affiliated with us: a line in the README, the About box or the store listing. Domains and social handles stay off-limits either way.

2. Using the logo

Use the files as published, and pick the variant that fits the surface: the mark by default, the negative mark on large dark fills, the line mark for monochrome or very small UI, and the horizontal lockup when the name has to be legible on its own.

Please do:

• show the mark inside your interface to point at Ficelle: a status bar, a provider picker, a connection indicator. That is what it is for, and it needs no permission; the line and negative variants read best at small sizes;
• keep the original proportions and colours;
• leave clear space around the mark of at least half its height on every side;
• pick the negative variant on a dark background rather than sitting the mark on a white box.

Please don’t:

• redraw, recolour, rotate, stretch, outline or add effects to it;
• merge it with your own mark into a single lockup;
• use any Ficelle mark as your own product icon, favicon or avatar. Showing it as one provider among others is the point; standing in for your identity is not;
• show it more prominently than your own branding;
• put it on merchandise or on anything offered for sale.

3. What needs a written OK

Two cases, and in both an email exchange is enough. There is no form, no fee and no minimum size.

“Powered by Ficelle” implies an ongoing relationship, so we would like to know that one exists. “Works with Ficelle” implies nothing of the sort and is covered by section 1.

Bundling Ficelle means shipping it inside your installer, image or application. The licence already permits redistribution, and its Additional Use Grant already permits production use that is not a competing hosted service. We ask anyway, because carrying our name on such a build comes with conditions:

• Your users’ provider keys, never yours. Ficelle routes with the end user’s own provider accounts. Shipping shared or embedded provider credentials breaks those providers’ terms, exhausts free quotas for everyone, and destroys the very guarantee the name stands for. This one is not negotiable.
• Don’t transfer our claims to your product. Ficelle’s strict-zero guarantee applies to what Ficelle routes. It says nothing about the rest of your product’s model calls.
• Keep the licence visible on the copies you ship, as the licence itself requires, and don’t disable the update path.

4. Claims to avoid

These are the ones we end up correcting:

• Ficelle does not make models free. It routes to providers’ free tiers using the user’s own accounts, and refuses paid calls by design.
• Ficelle does not guarantee any third-party provider’s availability, pricing or output. That is precisely why it reroutes.
• “Strict-zero” means Ficelle makes no paid call. It is not a spending cap on anything else.

5. Withdrawal and changes

We may withdraw this permission for a specific use. If we do, we will say why and leave you reasonable time to comply. We may also update this page; a change will not retroactively turn past compliant use into a breach.

Contact

Anything this page doesn’t cover, plus the written OK for section 3: support@ficelle.ai. One line describing what you want to do is enough.