Registration of your trademark will stop competitors from using your logo, or a deceptively similar version, in the course of their trade.Ĭopyright only protects the expression of an idea, not ideas or facts. An unregistered trademark is vulnerable to infringing existing rights or being used by others. While copyright protection is automatic, a logo must be formally registered, requiring the payment of a fee, to receive additional protection as a trademark. This means logos may be both copyright and trademark protected. Therefore, a logo can be a trademark if it is capable of differentiating your products or services from those of other companies. This includes using the logo on a billboard that appears in a scene with characters walking down a street or in a city square.Īlso, copyrighted logos can be used for purposes of fair dealing such as:Ī trademark is any sign that you use to make your products and services distinguishable from your competitors. Essentially, if a logo appears in a film but is merely ‘incidental’ to the main focus, this will not be an infringement of your copyright. The exception allowing the incidental filming of an artistic work is relevant for logos. The exceptions to copyright allow people to use copyright material without permission. Reproduction of a logo with alterations can still infringe copyright as courts will compare the two logos at face value to determine if important parts have been copied. Reproducing even a small part of the logo may infringe copyright if it constitutes a substantial part, which courts have held to mean an important, distinctive or essential part of the logo. The test courts apply to determine if a ‘substantial part’ of a logo has been taken is qualitative, not quantitative. If your logo has copyright protection, there will be copyright infringement if a ‘substantial part’ of it is used without the permission of the copyright owner. These include the right to be attributed as the author, the right not to have authorship falsely attributed to someone else, and the right of integrity of authorship. ![]() The original creator of the logo retains moral rights to the logo.
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