Trademark law helps us to assure that the name is used only in connection with genuine Tor anonymity software and for accurate description of software and services.Īfter all, to protect their anonymity securely, computer users must be able to identify the software they are using, so they can account properly for its strengths and weaknesses. We don't want to be trademark bullies, but we will use trademark to protect the public's ability to recognize Tor Project software. The Tor Project is a non-profit corporation organized to research and develop the Tor anonymity software and network. That said, if the research paper comes with software, and that software could potentially confuse people (users or other researchers) about whether it's written or endorsed by The Tor Project, then we're back to the above scenario. Since the authors of these research papers aren't trying to make a profit from them, and (because they're just papers, not products) the papers aren't confusing Tor users into running potentially unsafe software, we believe that the use of the Tor mark in these research paper titles is acceptable non-trademark or fair use. The anonymity bibliography lists many research papers that use Tor-derived names in their titles: Torsk, DefenestraTor, Tortoise, LASTor, Torchestra, StegoTorus, and more.

We think it's great that professors and other researchers continue to contribute to our community, and we've even gotten funding from the National Science Foundation to help keep the Tor design and code researcher-friendly. Tor enjoys a vibrant research community that examines anonymity attacks and defenses, design improvements, impact on society, and so on.

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