Trademark Policy

This Trademark Policy describes how ChefSphere OÜ ("ChefSphere") handles trademark rights — both our own and those of third parties — across the Service. It supplements the Terms of Service, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Copyright & DMCA Policy, the EU Digital Services Act Notice, the Tools Marketplace Terms, and the Ebook Marketplace Terms. Where a complaint concerns a copyright (not a trademark), the DMCA policy applies instead.

1. Our own marks

ChefSphere, the ChefSphere logo, the Chef-Sphere wordmark, the Chef Lives brand, the ChefCoins mark, and the ChefSphere colour palette and icon system are trademarks, service marks, and trade dress of ChefSphere OÜ. Nothing in these Terms or on the Service grants you a right to use them beyond what is permitted by this Policy.

1.1 Things you may do without written permission

• Refer to the Service by name in a truthful, non-misleading way — for example "My recipe is on ChefSphere" or "I'm a seller on the ChefSphere Tools Marketplace".
• Use our icons in a press, review, journalism, or academic context in accordance with the press kit available on request.
• Link to ChefSphere using plain text or our word mark.

1.2 Things you may not do without written permission

• Use our name, logo, or icon in a way that implies sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, or certification that does not exist.
• Use our marks, or marks confusingly similar to them, as part of your product name, app name, domain name, business name, or social-media handle.
• Sell or offer for sale, through any marketplace, merchandise or accessories bearing our marks without a written licence.
• Use our brand assets in a modified, distorted, re-coloured, or re-proportioned form, or in a way that suggests opposition to our values.
• Register a trademark, design mark, domain, or business name that incorporates our marks.

1.3 How to request permission

Write to [email protected] with the subject "Trademark use request" and include: who you are, the intended use, the duration, the territory, mock-ups where relevant, and the contract type you are asking for (co-marketing, integration partnership, press / journalism, academic study, charity / non-profit). We respond within 10 business days.

2. Third-party marks on the Service

Users, sellers, authors, and buyers interact with many third-party brands every day — manufacturers of kitchen tools, ingredient brands, cookbook publishers, cookware retailers. The following principles apply everywhere user-generated content touches a third-party mark.

2.1 Nominative fair use

You may refer to a third-party brand by name when it is necessary to identify the product or subject of your content, provided the reference is accurate, limited to what is necessary, and does not suggest sponsorship by the brand. Examples of allowed uses:

• Listing a tool as "KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart stand mixer, 2019 model" in the Tools Marketplace.
• Writing a recipe that calls for "San Marzano tomatoes" or "Valrhona chocolate".
• Posting a review titled "My honest take on the Thermomix TM6".
• Publishing a cookbook with a recipe credited as "Adapted from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking".

2.2 Not allowed

• Selling, renting, or listing counterfeit goods — items that bear a third-party mark without authorisation from the rights holder and that are not genuine.
• Using a third-party mark as your seller name, author name, or handle in a way that impersonates or creates confusion with the brand.
• Using a brand's logo or photographs as your listing's cover image in a way that suggests the brand published the listing or endorses your business, unless the brand actually has authorised this.
• Publishing a cookbook or recipe collection titled with a third-party mark in a way that suggests the cookbook is an official publication of the brand.
• Buying keywords, hashtags, or search terms inside the Service that consist of a competitor's or another brand's mark to misleadingly attract traffic to your listing.

2.3 Manufacturer and brand photography

Stock photography provided by a manufacturer is only allowed in a listing where the manufacturer has licensed such use or where fair-use rules in the applicable jurisdiction clearly permit it. When in doubt, take your own photos of the actual unit — every Seller Agreement requires the listing to show the real item.

3. Reporting a trademark infringement

If you are a trademark rights-holder (or an authorised representative) and you believe content on the Service infringes your mark, please send us a notice through either path below. Both paths trigger the same review process and the same SLAs.

3.1 Email — public path

Send a notice to [email protected] with the subject "Trademark notice: <registration number or country>".

A valid notice includes:

1. Identification of the protected mark — registration number, country of registration, classes, date of registration, and a copy of the registration certificate or database extract.
2. Identification of the infringing content — listing URL, item ID, user handle, or screenshot + timestamp.
3. The nature of the infringement — counterfeit, confusing similarity, impersonation, unauthorised use of a logo, etc. — with a short explanation.
4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent, or the law.
5. A statement, signed under penalty of perjury or its jurisdictional equivalent, that the information is accurate and that you are the rights holder or are authorised to act on the rights holder's behalf.
6. Your contact details — name, legal entity, physical address, email, phone.

3.2 Structured endpoint — account-holders

POST /api/v1/compliance/takedown-notices accepts a machine-readable trademark notice payload for account-holders. The payload returns a tracking ID and the notice is routed through the same review pipeline as a DSA Art. 16 notice and a DMCA §512(c)(3) notice. Fields mirror the elements in §3.1.

3.3 Our response

• We acknowledge receipt within 2 business days and issue a tracking ID.
• We review diligently and without undue delay — proportionate to the volume of affected items.
• If the notice is complete and substantiated, we act: remove, restrict, suspend, or de-list the affected content, require the uploader to amend the listing, and where appropriate refer the matter to the Seller's Trust-and-Safety record.
• We notify the uploader with a Statement of Reasons under DSA Art. 17, including the legal basis (trademark), the factual circumstances, and the appeal path.
• The uploader may submit a counter-notice under §4.
• If the notice is incomplete or unsubstantiated, we may dismiss with a reasoned explanation and invite the notifier to correct.

We do not respond to mass-filed, automated, or speculative notices lacking the sworn statement in §3.1(5). Patterns of abuse trigger DSA Art. 23 suspension of the submitter.

4. Counter-notice (uploader appeal)

If your content was removed and you believe the removal was mistaken, file a counter-notice through either channel below within six (6) months of the removal.

4.1 Structured endpoint — account-holders

POST /api/v1/compliance/takedown-notices/{id}/counter-notice. Requires the ChefSphere account whose content was removed.

4.2 Email — public path

[email protected]. Reference the tracking ID from the removal notice in the subject line.

A counter-notice must contain:

1. Your identification (name, address, phone, email) and signature.
2. Identification of the removed content and the URL where it appeared.
3. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the content was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification, or that you have a legal right to use the mark under a doctrine such as nominative fair use, comparative advertising, or an express authorisation.
4. Your consent to the jurisdiction of the Harju County Court (Harju Maakohus), Tallinn, or of a competent court in the country of your address if EU consumer-law rules apply.

We forward the counter-notice to the original notifier. The notifier has 14 calendar days to inform us that they have initiated a court action; if they do not, the content is restored. This mirrors the DMCA counter-notice mechanic, which we apply to trademark notices as a matter of policy even though trademark law does not mandate an identical timer.

5. Impersonation and handle squatting

Impersonation of a person or an organisation is prohibited by the Acceptable Use Policy. A special rule applies to trademark-holder handles.

• A verified-holder release allows a trademark holder to reclaim a handle that squats on its mark. Contact [email protected] with proof of mark registration and a sworn statement.
• Not a trademark-handle release: a handle that coincidentally matches a registered mark but predates the mark's registration, belongs to a well-known common-word user, or falls under a fair-use doctrine.
• We publicly identify verified brand accounts with a visual marker; buying or transferring a verified brand account is prohibited.

6. Marketplace counterfeits

Counterfeit listings cause direct consumer harm and breach of the Tools Marketplace Terms, the Ebook Marketplace Terms, and consumer-protection law.

• Rights-holders can submit counterfeit-category takedown notices through the channels in §3, tagged "counterfeit".
• On confirmation we remove the listing, hold the Seller's reserve pending investigation, and — for repeat offenders — terminate the Seller account and refer the matter to the competent authority.
• Buyers who unknowingly purchased a counterfeit item are entitled to a full refund outside the normal return window under the Tools Return & Refund Policy.

7. Domain and app-store confusion

We monitor, and we expect rights-holders to report, the use of our marks in:

• Domain names confusingly similar to chefsphere.app.
• App-store listings on iOS and Android that imitate our bundle ID app.chefsphere.chefsphere or our app icon.
• Advertisements (search, display, social) that use our name as a keyword to misdirect users to competitor or scam destinations.

Reports reach us at [email protected].

8. Warning under applicable law

Knowingly filing a false trademark notice can expose you to civil damages, including costs and legal fees, and — depending on the jurisdiction — to criminal penalties for perjury. Please do not file speculative notices.

9. Not legal advice

This Policy is not legal advice. If you are not sure whether a use of a mark is permitted, or whether your use infringes another party's rights, consult a trademark attorney qualified in the relevant jurisdiction.

10. Changes

We update this Policy when the takedown flow, the brand asset set, or applicable law change materially. The effective date and version at the top control.

11. Contact

• Trademark notices and counter-notices: [email protected]
• Copyright / DMCA: [email protected]
• Marketplace trust and safety: [email protected]
• DSA single point of contact: [email protected]