Ruling Reflected in This Document
The Value Creation Protocol (VCP) is an open standard and will not be licensed. No copyright license (permissive or copyleft, Apache 2.0 or otherwise) attaches to the published VCP specification. The specification is published; anyone may implement it; no licensing terms apply.
The trademark protection remains in place. The “Value Creation Protocol” and “VCP” names protect the specification's identity and prevent fraudulent claims of compliance. This is a separate mechanism from copyright licensing.
This document describes the legal architecture of that posture.
1. What “Open Standard, No License” Means in Practice
| Element | Posture |
|---|---|
| The VCP specification text (prose, definitions, diagrams, examples published at valuecreationprotocol.com ) | Published. No copyright license granted. No restrictions imposed via license terms. |
| Implementation of VCP by third parties | Permitted. No license required. Anyone may build a system that implements the VCP specification. |
| Reference to “VCP”, “Value Creation Protocol”, “VCP-compliant”, or “VCP-conformant” | Controlled by trademark, not by copyright license. Trademark policy (forthcoming) governs who may use these names and under what conditions. |
| Reproduction of the specification text | Good-faith reproduction in implementation documentation, technical discussion, and educational material is permitted by Producer's practice. The author does not enforce copyright against good-faith reference, quotation, or implementation documentation. |
| Modified versions of the specification text published under the VCP name | Subject to trademark policy. A modified specification published as “Value Creation Protocol” or “VCP” without authorization is a trademark matter. |
| The published specification's copyright | Copyright vests in Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team automatically as the author. The choice is not to license that copyright, not to waive it. |
2. The Legal Mechanics of the Open-Standard Posture
2.1 Copyright Exists by Default
In the United States and most Berne Convention jurisdictions, copyright in an original work of authorship vests in the author automatically at fixation. Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team owns copyright in the published VCP specification whether or not any license notice is attached.
The choice “no license” means: copyright exists, but no rights are expressly granted to others through a formal license. The protocol is offered as an open standard in spirit and operation; the author does not enforce against good-faith implementation, reference, or commentary.
2.2 “Open Standard” in Practice
The phrase “open standard” has no single legal definition. The Value Creation Protocol follows the operational pattern established by widely-adopted convention-style specifications, including the original Markdown specification (John Gruber, 2004), the 12-Factor App methodology (Heroku, 2011), and the early-draft phases of federated-web protocols. In every case, the specification was published without a formal license, copyright remained with the author, the specification's name was protected via trademark or common-law identity, and broad community implementation occurred on the strength of publication and convention alone.
2.3 Derivative Works of the Specification
Without a license, third parties have no clear right to publish a derivative version of the VCP specification (for example, “VCP v2 — Community Edition”). Third parties may publish their own original work that implements VCP, references VCP, or critiques VCP. The trademark policy governs the use of the VCP names in any such derivative.
2.4 Authorship Attribution
The community convention is to attribute the Value Creation Protocol to Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team using a citation form similar to: “the Value Creation Protocol specification published by Value-First Team.” Trademark and community norms — rather than a license condition — secure attribution.
3. Trademark Protection
3.1 What the Trademark Protects
| Asset | Protected by | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| “Value Creation Protocol” — the name | Trademark (common-law and, where filed, registered) | A third party cannot publish a specification called “Value Creation Protocol” that competes with or undermines the published specification. |
| “VCP” — the acronym | Trademark, subject to acronym-protection scope | Same as above; acronym protection is narrower because acronyms can carry multiple meanings. |
| “VCP-compliant” or “VCP-conformant” — conformance claims | Trademark and conformance policy | A third party cannot claim its product is “VCP-compliant” if it does not meet the criteria the conformance policy defines. |
| The VCP visual identity (logo, if created) | Trademark and the underlying logo copyright | Logo-use control. |
3.2 Trademark Policy
The trademark policy will cover:
- Who may use “Value Creation Protocol” and “VCP”, in what contexts (factual reference, implementation claim, derivative naming).
- The definition of “VCP-compliant” and “VCP-conformant”: what implementations qualify.
- Self-declared versus certification-based conformance posture.
- Logo usage rules.
- Enforcement posture (cease-and-desist on misuse, public registry of legitimately conforming implementations).
- Geographic scope.
- How the trademark policy interacts with the no-copyright-license posture (the two mechanisms are independent).
The trademark policy is forthcoming. In the interim, third parties wishing to claim conformance, distribute derivative documentation, or use the VCP marks in any commercial context should contact contact@valuefirstteam.com.
4. Published Notice for the Specification
The following notice accompanies the published VCP specification:
Value Creation Protocol Specification
Published by Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team as an open standard.
Anyone may implement the protocol described in this specification. Anyone may reference, quote, and discuss the specification. The author does not require a license for any of these activities and does not enforce copyright against good-faith implementation, reference, or commentary.
The specification text itself remains the work of Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team. Reproduction of substantial portions of the specification text in derivative documentation should follow standard scholarly citation practice. Publication of a modified version of the specification text under the name “Value Creation Protocol” or “VCP” is subject to the trademark policy.
© 2026 Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team.
5. Comparable Open-Standard Patterns
The Value Creation Protocol's posture follows the pattern of widely-adopted specifications that ship without a formal copyright license:
5.1 Markdown (John Gruber, 2004)
John Gruber published the original Markdown specification on daringfireball.net with no formal license, no patent grant, and no trademark policy at launch. The specification was widely implemented (Stack Overflow, GitHub, Reddit, every major IDE) without anyone obtaining a license. Gruber retained common-law trademark in “Markdown”. This is the closest analogue to the VCP posture.
5.2 12-Factor App Methodology (Heroku, 2011)
The 12-Factor App methodology is published on a Heroku-owned site with copyright notice but no license. It became one of the most influential software-architecture methodologies of the 2010s. Anyone references it; no one obtains a license. This pattern is operationally identical to the VCP posture.
5.3 IETF and W3C — Permissive License, Often Cited as “Open Standard”
IETF RFCs and W3C Recommendations are published under permissive licenses (the IETF Contributions license and the W3C Document License). They are frequently referenced as the canonical “open standard” model. The VCP posture differs in that it does not attach even a permissive license; the operational effect is similar because the author does not enforce against good-faith implementation.
5.4 The “Convention” Pattern in Software
Many widely-followed conventions — REST principles (Roy Fielding's 2000 dissertation), the Agile Manifesto (2001) — were published without any formal license. They became influential through publication and community adoption alone.
6. Practical Guidance for Implementers
- You may implement VCP. No license is required.
- You may reference the specification in your documentation, your software, your training material, and your articles.
- You may quote the specification in good faith for technical discussion, education, or implementation guidance.
- You may state that your implementation is “VCP-compliant” if your implementation meets the criteria the conformance policy defines (forthcoming).
- You may not publish a modified specification under the VCP name without consultation with the trademark policy.
- You may not represent yourself as the publisher of the Value Creation Protocol; the specification is published by Conveying Your Message LLC dba Value-First Team.
7. Related Resources
- valuecreationprotocol.com — The canonical home of the Value Creation Protocol specification.
- contact@valuefirstteam.com — For trademark, conformance, or implementation inquiries.