“Cheap” Logo Design Can Be Costly
Today, I came upon the boingboing post Logo rip-offs, which links to an internal page on Bad Design Kills. The page, titled LOGOWORKS.COM RIP-OFFS, shows several logos that are suspect from a trademark view. 
For example, the logo on the right looks strikingly similar to the one on the left. According to the sources I could find on the internet, the one on the left was created by the discount logo designers at logoworks.com.
This caused me to think about the liability of the designers for trademark infringement. I looked to their Terms and Conditions of Use and discovered that “no trademarks or service marks . . . are being conveyed.” Unfortunately, the design firm is not responsible for any kind of trademark clearance. This would likely be true even without such a disclaimer.
While I believe that the “copycat” designers may have a copyright problem, I think they’re probably okay when it comes to trademarks. They are not using the mark to sell similar goods. Rather, they’re selling the mark itself.
The moral of the story: Call your favorite trademark lawyer before using a new logo, especially if the logo comes from a discount designer.
You may be interested in reading the following related posts:
- Google gets a design patent – aka the Twitterverse’s collective head explodes
- trademark smokes
- UT Regents Hacked, I mean Saw’ed Off, with Aggieland Outfitters’ Use of Longhorn Logo
- why you should do a trademark clearance – tiffany’s versus tiffany’s
- Canadian Trademark Practice Change – First to File for Examination Purposes
Posted by Douglas Sorocco, September 21, 2005 at 2:43 pm
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