CARL, The CARL Standard, and the associated logos are trademarks of Wentzel.ai. "Wentzel" and "Wentzel.ai" are also trademarks of Wentzel.ai. These are common-law trademarks; no formal registration is in place at this time. Common-law rights arise from use in commerce and are enforceable.
This page describes what you can do with these marks without asking permission, and what requires permission.
Permitted use (no permission required)
You may:
- Refer to the standard by name. "We assessed our codebase against the CARL Standard v1.0." "Our CI runs a CARL Scan." "This repo is CARL L3."
- Claim conformance honestly. "Conformant with CARL Standard v1.0,
self-assessed on 2026-04-22, report at
<url>." See the criteria catalog for what "conformance" requires. - Display a CARL badge (SVG served from
carl.wentzel.ai/badge/owner/repo.svg) on your README, documentation, or marketing, provided the badge reflects a real published report. - Link back to
carl.wentzel.aiwhen discussing the standard or the tooling. - Reference and briefly excerpt the spec text in articles, books, talks, and reviews for commentary or review purposes, with attribution — see the license page for the current proprietary/all rights reserved posture (no open license grant is in effect today for reproducing substantial portions of the spec).
Permission required
Please ask before doing any of the following:
- Using "CARL" in a product name (for example, "CARL Pro", "Enterprise CARL", "CARL for Jira") that could be mistaken for an official Wentzel.ai product or for formal endorsement.
- Selling physical merchandise (shirts, stickers, books) bearing the CARL or Wentzel.ai marks.
- Using the Wentzel.ai logo or CARL logo in your own marketing materials in a way that could suggest partnership, affiliation, or endorsement that does not exist.
- Using the marks in domain names that could cause confusion (for example,
carl-assessor.com,carl-cloud.com). Domain names at the edge of fair use are evaluated case by case. - Offering paid certification, audit, or training services under the CARL name. We are happy to talk; the standard is open and third-party attestation is anticipated. But naming matters for buyer trust.
Email trademarks@wentzel.ai.
Restricted use (will be objected to)
- Using the marks in a way that falsely implies endorsement, certification, or partnership with Wentzel.ai.
- Using the marks on a fork or derivative in a way that makes it appear to be the canonical CARL project or standard.
- Modifying the CARL or Wentzel.ai logos (stretching, recoloring, adding elements). We will publish a style guide and approved asset pack when ready.
- Using the marks in connection with misleading, fraudulent, illegal, or harmful activity.
Nominative fair use
Nothing in this policy is intended to restrict nominative fair use. You may use the marks as needed to refer to the standard, the tooling, or the company — including in reviews, academic work, journalism, and comparative discussion — without permission. This policy is a guide to avoid confusion, not a tool to silence speech.
Licensing and trademarks
CARL's code and spec are proprietary to Wentzel.ai — see the license page for the current all-rights-reserved posture (earlier plans contemplated an Apache 2.0 / CC BY 4.0 open-license model; that plan is not in effect today). Trademark rights are independent of code/spec licensing either way: even if an open license existed, it would not convey trademark rights, and you could not use the marks to suggest a fork or derivative was the official CARL project.
Contact
Questions, requests for permission, or reports of confusing use:
trademarks@wentzel.ai.
This policy is not legal advice; it is a plain-English description of how we expect the marks to be used. Fair use and nominative use are preserved.
Related
- License — proprietary, all rights reserved.
- Conformance claims — what an honest CARL claim looks like.
- Badges — permitted use of CARL SVG badges on README files.