We’ve had a bunch of requests asking how you all can use our brands, icons, all that sort of thing. The usual answer to such questions is vague shrieking sounds from the Friendly Neighborhood Lawyer combined with threats of discommendation, but we worked out a compromise.
If you’d like to use our trademarks (for example “Glowforge®” and “Proofgrade™”) or our logos (for example and ), you’ll find everything you need to do so discommendation-free inside. It also has handy tips for sharing so we can find your stuff and re-share on your behalf! That’s right, we want to make you extra famous for your Glowforge talents.
I really appreciate this handy guide. Thank you for being proactive in helping us reference the brand. It will be very important in my prep for Maker Faire. Maker Faire is encouraging participants to shout out their game plan and I’d like to start getting the word out.
I’m confused about one thing: referring to Glowforge and Proofgrade as nouns. The guide says not to do it, but then goes ahead and seems to do it in multiple places!
For example, these are great:
• “Made with my Glowforge”
• “Designed to be used with a Glowforge 3D laser printer”
First example reads as a noun, second is an adjective (Glowforge)- noun (3D laser printer) reference. In casual forum discussion we refer to the Glowforge all the time as a noun, but for stating these permissives you may want to frame the document such that "we only allow this one noun exception: ‘Made with (a) Glowforge’”
Can we refer to the Glowforge ® as GF on the forums? Can someone make a “registered” emoji or better yet, emojis with the full proper designations (with appropriate fonts and colors)?
Please don’t:
Share projects that might, in any way, be unsafe to make or use.
This seems overly broad in scope, for example, any project involving mains electricity could be unsafe in some way. I have seen wooden night light holders and ornamental switch plates shared here, the former by @dan I think. I would consider those a slight fire risk, so in some way unsafe. Anything with a lithium battery has some risk. What about the drone with rubber band Gatling guns? Could have somebody’s eye out!
In fact nearly everything in life can be considered “unsafe in some way”, using a laser cutter at all carries more risk than a lot of other things.
The words “might” and “in any way” are the problem. If it said “don’t share projects that are dangerous” it would make more sense, although even that is very subjective. It’s just like changing the tube. It might be dangerous for some people but not others, depending on their technical experience.
This is great. Thanks for making this information available.
I know you are trying to keep this guide simple and clear and I think that’s great. Keeping it to two pages is very helpful. Too much longer and folks will glaze over it.
I was going to point out what @dan_berry said about not using Glowforge as a noun but then the example on the next page did just that.
Related to that is the difference between Glowforge the company and Glowforge the laser engraver. That differentiation might need a paragraph in the document. To me, it seems like the noun Glowforge should always refer to the company and the adjective Glowforge should always refer to the laser engraver.
On a PC, you can get the ® symbol by holding down the ALT key and typing 0174 on the number pad. You can get the ™ symbol by holding down the ALT key and typing 0153 on the number pad. I assume there is an equivalent on Macs.
I do agree. Let’s face it, anything cut out at the right size will be a choking hazard. But, hey… It’s a “please don’t” not a policy. So it doesn’t really mean much anyway. I think the spirit of the language is to, for example, not publish your plans for a 'forged gun or otherwise functioning weapon.
Can’t disagree with that one! It’s being used as a noun.
Now… @dan here’s my question about this… (And this is one of the scariest things about your software being cloud-based…) Are we in any danger of losing our ability to use the GFUI if any of these requests are ignored? If somebody runs off and just starts using “Glowforge®” as a noun everywhere or uses the wrong color scheme all over the place, or publishes videos (not here) of them using a Glowforge (oops! I just used it as a noun!) in an abnormal (but not illegal) way… Will Glowforge (proper noun referring to the company, not the device) ban the user from using the software?
Is there any situation where a user could be banned from using the software? If so, can we have a clear list of those infractions?
Is there a way to opt out of our material being using in marketing and campaigns by glowforge hq? Or would we be contacted prior to any sharing of user created content.
and 
), you’ll find everything you need to do so discommendation-free inside. It also has handy tips for sharing so we can find your stuff and re-share on your behalf! That’s right, we want to make you extra famous for your Glowforge talents.
Thanks for the info! 
