Bluesky Trademarks ATProto

Bluesky said it acquired trademark rights for "ATPROTOCOL" and variants including "AT Protocol" and "atproto" from another company that had threatened legal action to prevent use of the term. The company said the move is a defensive measure to protect the atproto community and developers from having their work undermined by legal threats. Bluesky said it will defend the mark from bad actors while making it freely available to the ecosystem. The company said most everyday use cases do not require a license, including projects that refer to the protocol, community discussion, documentation, and open-source tooling, provided users are descriptive, accurate, and do not imply official endorsement. Licenses are required for product or company names built around AT Protocol, paid events, merchandise, registered domain names, official-sounding certifications, or use of the AT Protocol logo. Bluesky said discussions about licensing fees will arise only if a commercial enterprise wants to use the mark for profit as part of its branding. The trademark is currently owned by Bluesky PBC, which said it plans to transfer ownership to an independent protocol governance organization in the future. The company cited inspiration from open-source projects including Wikimedia, Red Hat, Rust, Python Foundation, Apache, Mozilla, Linux, and Debian.