[thelist] Logo Design (infringement) help requested

Marc Seyon seyon at delime.com
Fri Jun 27 23:21:27 CDT 2003


Hi Belinda,

First thing I've got to say is I am not a lawyer. However itsounds like you 
may need one of those to help get this situation straightened out. So far 
you seem to be handling this fairly well. You've managed to document the 
facts quite clearly. Stick in that vein and don't panic.

Message from Belinda Johnson (6/27/2003 09:52 PM)

>I as contacted this afternoon by the CEO of a company who believes that a
>site that is hosted on one of my servers has stolen their logo design and
>Business name

His claim is mostly based on trademark law so that's what I'll refer to 
more or less.

>I am the host, an independent designer designed the site, for a client (who
>was the one who established his business name and then contracted her to
>build the website.

Your agreement as the hosting provider should include a clause that states 
that you cannot be held liable for these types of slip-ups. I believe most 
hosts have fairly straightforward procedures for handling this.

Assess validity of claim.
Remove the offending material if you see fit.
Contact relevant parties.
Keep material offline until situation is cleared up.

>  (The first thing I mentioned in my email response to him
>was that  I was surprised he bypassed the owner of the offending company and
>the webmaster of the site

This isn't uncommon, and is quite sensible. He wants the offending material 
offline as soon as possible. You're the one who can make that happen most 
readily.

>The designer - I KNOW did not copy their logo - but I have to admit the
>similarity is a little scary (ok - a lot) - but honestly - there is not
>another human being on the face of this earth that I trust more than this
>designer - and throughout the design process, even though I wasn't directly
>involved - we usually run things by each other in the process, and I
>remember looking at the image files as she was creating them (BY HAND -
>that's the ONLY WAY we create logos or web graphics) - and of course she has
>all those in process files on her computer, and I have the corresponding
>emails where we tossed ideas back and forth.

This "paper trail" may prove to be very important. If the designer can 
prove that she never saw the original design before, it becomes more 
difficult to prove that infringement occurred. [1].

Incidentally, creating the logo "BY HAND" doesn't mean she didn't see the 
original logo beforehand and copy it from memory. Just cause you didn't 
save the original file and modify it didn't mean that it wasn't copied.

>  TRULY - I know I have never looked at the other website until tonight - 
> and she doesn't think she did but can't be sure

This will be hard to prove. Very few companies will instinctively decide to 
register their domain as mycompany.biz
The process is usually to first check for availability of mycompany.com, 
then look for alternatives. And this check sometimes includes visiting the 
domain if it is registered to see what it's about (possibly with intent of 
making an offer to buy it from the registrant)

>His email to me: "Your client has not only appropriated our name, they have
>copied our logo.

The logo is somewhat suspect. But honestly neither is particularly strong 
or so indicative of the respective product/service that it is priceless. I 
don't think the site designer should lose any sleep over having the change 
the logo if it comes to that.

However his claim about the company name. Well, that's an example of an 
arbitrary mark. Meaning that it "has no relation to the goods or services 
being sold." [2]
Arbitrary marks cannot be used as all-encompassing trademarks, they only 
prevent people in the same or similar line of business from using the mark.

This url sums it all up quite nicely. 
http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/infringe.html

And ever heard of Unix? I bet their trademark is stronger than this guy's. 
But take a look at http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/otherunix.html

good luck.
-marc

[1] http://www.ibslaw.com/melon/archive/205_qANDa.html
[2] http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/degrees.html

--
Carnival 2003 in all its photographic glory. Playyuhself.com
http://www.playyuhself.com/


More information about the thelist mailing list