Just stumbled an enlightening post “Trademark, Copyright and Logos” by Jonathan Bailey. I sincerely recommend this post to graphic designers, especially this is read must advice for freshers.
To hear intellectual property attorneys describe it, it seems so simple. Copyright covers creative works of expression fixed into a tangible medium of expression. Trademark covers business names, slogans and other items used to identify it in the marketplace. Patent covers ideas and inventions. Simple.
Then what about logos?
Logos are one of those spaces of intellectual property law where there is a great deal of overlap between two areas, in this case copyright and trademark, and businesses are known for using both to protect their logos from undesired use.
So where are the lines drawn? The answers aren’t very simple and requires looking deeper into what copyright and trademark protect and, even then, there aren’t very many clear answers to give, just a lot of gray area that has to be taken one case at a time.
read the full article here
Above picture is taken from Stephen Downes’s flickr page.
August 18, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Just wanted to say thank you for the link and mention! Glad you liked the article and found it useful!
August 18, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Welcome Jonathan, and thanks for posting such an enlightening post.