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Trademark Licensing Moratorium During the Pre-Foundation Period

Status. Binding policy. Derives from Article VI Section 6 of the Constitution. Effective date. 2026-04-24 (adoption), expiring automatically upon incorporation of the standalone Open Honest Foundation and its acquisition of the trademarks. Authors. Adam Z. Wasserman.

1. The rule

Until the standalone Open Honest Foundation is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) (or equivalent jurisdiction’s non-profit legal person) and the “Open Honest” and “Certified Honest Practitioner” marks are held by that Foundation in its own name, no commercial license of either mark may be granted. This applies whether the project is operating under fiscal sponsorship, under a university-affiliated arrangement, under the Author’s sole proprietorship, or under any other legal configuration that predates the standalone Foundation.

No exceptions. No emergency waivers. No partial licensing. The moratorium is lifted the moment the Foundation holds the trademarks.

2. What the moratorium covers

During the moratorium, none of the following may be issued, negotiated, executed, or promised by the Author, any fiscal sponsor, any working group, any academic partner, or any other party acting on behalf of the Open Honest project:

• Certification administrator agreements (the “Pink Elephant” role for the Certified Honest Practitioner credential).
• Trainer accreditation agreements.
• Territorial exclusivity grants of any duration.
• Royalty-bearing trademark-use arrangements.
• Brand-standards agreements that grant use of the marks in exchange for compliance.
• Co-branding or co-marketing agreements that condition use of the marks.
• Sub-licensing by the fiscal sponsor of any of the above.
• Letters of intent, memoranda of understanding, or handshake agreements that commit the future Foundation to any of the above.

The moratorium does not cover:

• The Author’s personal, direct commercial use of the marks (permitted under Constitution Article VI Section 2 first bullet).
• Fair-use, nominative, and educational references to the marks (governed by standard trademark law).
• Open-source use of the methodology, code, curriculum, and research materials; these are released under open licenses and are separate from the marks (Article VI Section 1).
• Discussions and exploratory conversations with potential future commercial licensees, provided no binding commitment is made.

3. Why

The Constitution’s commercial-licensing framework (Article VI) is designed around one structural premise: the trademarks are held by a Foundation that is legally and operationally independent of any commercial licensee. The Foundation is the enforcement backstop. Its trustees carry fiduciary duty to the mission. Its Independent Trustee has veto power over licensing decisions. Its composition is structurally protected from commercial capture.

None of these protections exist during the pre-Foundation period. During fiscal sponsorship, the legal person that would sign a trademark license is the fiscal sponsor: a third-party 501(c)(3) that has no governance relationship to the Constitution, no obligation to the project’s mission beyond the sponsorship agreement, and no structural alignment with the trustee-based enforcement model the Constitution requires. A license signed during this period would be bound to the fiscal sponsor’s legal identity, not the future Foundation’s; transferring it later is complicated and introduces the exact kind of governance-incoherence the Constitution’s immutable sections exist to prevent.

The clean solution is to grant no licenses until the Foundation exists.

4. Timing and duration

Pre-Foundation period begins on 2026-04-24 (the adoption date of this policy) and runs until the standalone Open Honest Foundation is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) and the trademarks are recorded as held by the Foundation in its own name.

The Foundation is incorporated as soon as conditions warrant; the moratorium lifts the same day. Triggers include (i) accumulated grant funding sufficient for independent operation, (ii) a multi-year programmatic grant from a major research foundation or equivalent, and (iii) any strategic need that justifies filing a 1023 application, including a commercial-licensing conversation that the Foundation (not a fiscal sponsor) must sign. Thirty-six months is the outer envelope for planning purposes, not a target; earlier incorporation is the preferred outcome whenever conditions permit.

Upon incorporation, this policy expires automatically. Commercial licensing resumes under the framework of Article VI, with the Foundation as the licensing authority.

5. Interaction with fiscal sponsorship

The Author will operate the Open Honest project under fiscal sponsorship through an established public-interest open-source fiscal host during the pre-Foundation period. The fiscal sponsor:

• Holds 501(c)(3) status for the purposes of receiving grants and tax-deductible donations.
• Accepts responsibility for financial reporting, tax compliance, and audit.
• Does not acquire the Open Honest or Certified Honest Practitioner marks.
• Does not have authority to license the marks to third parties.
• Does not sign commercial agreements that would commit the future Foundation.

The fiscal-sponsorship agreement will include an explicit clause referencing this moratorium to make the boundary unambiguous.

6. Preserving trademark rights during the moratorium

The moratorium does not mean the marks are unprotected. During the pre-Foundation period:

• Trademark applications (US, Canada, EU, and any other priority jurisdictions) may be filed in the Author’s name or in a holding entity controlled by the Author, with a recorded intent to assign to the Foundation upon incorporation. This preserves priority dates without compromising the moratorium’s logic.
• The Author may enforce the marks against infringing uses under standard trademark law during this period, including cease-and-desist and, where appropriate, litigation.
• Open-source license attribution requirements continue to apply to derivative uses of the methodology, code, curriculum, and research materials.

7. Precedent this sets

Adopting this moratorium signals to potential commercial partners, funders, fiscal sponsors, and academic collaborators that the project’s governance discipline is load-bearing, not ornamental. The explicit deferral of licensing revenue until the governance structure can hold up under legal weight is the most credible demonstration of commitment to the Constitution’s anti-capture provisions that is available at this stage.

Potential commercial licensees who will not wait for the Foundation — or who negotiate as if the moratorium were a bargaining item — are thereby self-selecting as a poor fit for the Pink Elephant role.

8. Revision

This policy document may be amended only by a Constitutional amendment under Article VIII. Because the underlying rule (Article VI Section 6) is immutable, amendment of this document is limited to clarifications of procedure, updates to the timing section, and adjustments to interaction details with the fiscal sponsor. The core rule — no commercial license of the marks during the pre-Foundation period — may not be amended away.