Question For Smiffy99

[nellie2]

This is about trademarks and logos

Say I liked the logo that is used by a big company for one of its products. Just the graphics...... am I breaking any laws by adapting it say to make a button for my web site?? :huh:

I have been having a look here but am still not sure

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/trademarks/gnlguide.asp

[brandon]

If you ask for permission to use that pic, and maybe link to the place you got it from, then it's 100% legal, as long as you get their permission.

[nellie2]

oh....wonder who is in charge of pics then :huh:

[brandon]

oh....wonder who is in charge of pics then  :huh:

Just ask the company you wanna borrow the pic from.

[nellie2]

ok.... thanks!! :)

[brandon]

ok.... thanks!!  :)

You're welcome.

[Sir Radfordin]

"EXCEPTIONS: Use of our icons is permissible in relation to a training manual or documentation written for and/or about a Microsoft product. In such cases, use of Microsoft icons must be specific to the function of the icon within the Microsoft software, and not used as a graphical element or design for your own purposes. Further, icons cannot be modified or altered and must appear as they would within the Microsoft software. "

http://www.microsoft.com/permission/copyrg...p-img.htm#Icons

Guess it all depends on what you are going to use it for!

[djohn]

http://www.ephotozine.com/freelance/fullst...?freelanceid=19 Have a read of this article from peter e on copyright of photo's nel. Very interesting and may answer your question.

Registered trademarks and logo's are protected by copyright and some company's can get rather upset if you use them. Remember the one a while back where someone used a logo similar to "Coke" on their bottles and had to withdraw all their stock.

[Chris]

I asked Microsoft this and they could not "offer legal advice" ...that was obvious.

They directed me to sir rads link and all was explained.

[Smiffy99]

Sorry for the absence and delay, but I have posted another thread in explination!

As to the Logo the above has pretty much covered it but there are certain things to consider;

The main reason for trademarks is to prevent any form of "passing off" in so much as you may mislead people to beleive that you are in some way affiliated to or a part of the "true" company who designed the logo. That much is obvious. However, if the logo is not a particularly well known one to the general public (such as Coca Cola and the white on red script) and you were to adapt it for use in a different context you may well find there is nothing to prevent its use.

For example, take the name Adobe - we would recognise that as a PDF reader/creator and the name of a software company, but there is in fact a company by that name specialising in property and nothing to do with software. So long as your use of the image would notbe confused it may be possible providing....

That the actual graphic is not so unique so as to have COPYRIGHT (not trademark) i.e. its design is attributed to another. In this case it would be the same as taking a picture from a magazine or similar and using that for your own purposes.

However, again, you say that youu intend to change it slightly/ If so and the new design is suffciently different so as to be the majority of your own work and uses the original for "inspiration" then there should be no problem.

A good rule of thum would be to ask yourself if you are simply "adapting" the original and there remains substantial similarities or if you are basing YOUR design on ideas and inspiration from the original. If the latter then you should be OK.