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According to trademark guidance:

[...] Including one of the terms, "Stack" or "Exchange" or "Overflow" in your product name is generally okay.

I'd like to use "StackEx" as a prefix for my app name (e.g., "StackExcavate", "StackExSave") - Is this allowed?
Also, what about replacing the "Ex" with just "X" (e.g., "StackXplore")?

  • I saw this question to which Joel suggested to contact the team, which I did (with more questions) some time ago, but didn't get an answer (well, yet).
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[mandatory I Am Not A Lawyer prefix]

Do not overthink this - using a part of the Stack Exchange trademark, especially if it occurs naturally in the name of your app, is perfectly fine (unless you are trying to make a competitor service and then register it as a trademark yourself - this might get a bit more complicated).

The important part of the quote you provided is not the example, it is this part:

Do name your application with something unique.

There are numerous prominent user organizations, applications, and scripts that are using the trademark even in full (the Stack Overflow one) - however, they are called sufficiently uniquely to be absolutely in the clear:

  • SOBotics
  • SOCVR (Stack Overflow Close Vote Reviewers)
  • SOX (Stack Overflow Extras)
  • SOUP (The Stack Overflow Unofficial Patch)

The list goes on. Some of the above explicitly add a note that they are not affiliated with Stack Exchange (e.g. SOBotic's "We are not affiliated with Stack Overflow or the Stack Exchange Network."), though.

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    Thanks. BTW, your first two links (to tmsearch.uspto.gov) lead to some weird page - not sure if that's intentional or not.
    – OfirD
    Commented Oct 31, 2021 at 21:59
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    Oh, yeah, they have a weird system of allocating resources for each visitor and then clearing them - I probably included my allocation by accident - will look in the morning, thanks!
    – 0Valt
    Commented Oct 31, 2021 at 22:02
  • @HeyJude - done, sorry for the confusion, seems like there is no easy way to get back to the queries when the session expires, so I relinked to TSDRs of both trademarks
    – 0Valt
    Commented Oct 31, 2021 at 22:13

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