Using Companies Logos Is it legal?

kbh4031

I sell used clothing in an ebay shop and I have a Facebook Fanpage.
A designer has created me a new Facebook Welcome page and on the page he has used a couple of clothings brands logos...M & S, Monsoon & a couple of others
Its not live yet as he is awaiting confirmation that I am happy with the design, and I do love it, but Im uncertain as to wether I can use these logos or not?

Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Many thanks
Kelly

Savvy_Sue

I don't think that you can. I can't remember what the context was exactly, but someone else had a website with 'characters' on and was advised it was likely to cause trouble.

Hopefully more definite answers will follow later ...

lucylucky

As I understand it the copyright of the logos belong to the companies in question and should not be used without express permission of the copyright holder.

steve1980

As above. Permission must be granted.

PasturesNew

No, it's not legal at all - and even if you asked they'd decline.

Their brand is their income and they have to protect it. They have no way of controlling the quality of any of your marketing methods/materials, nor any control over whether you might sell fakes.

Forget it. Your designer should have known better.

welshblob

I had this question when creating some signs and yellow pages adverts last year for my brothers shop. I asked yellow pages if it was ok to use logos and they didn't have an issue but complained about the licensed fonts used! Ultimately its my brothers responsibility though. I came to the decision that as long as we didn't pretend to be affiliated in some way (i.e. authorised agent etc.) then we'd take the risk and remove them upon complaint. This would be easy to do with the shop signs and website although the yellow pages would be a bit tricker. At the end of the day its a gamble and you take the risk of reprise from the logo owner. That would either be a cease and desist letter or them trying to claim some money from you. Of course we never spent £1000's of pounds of marketing materials so there was no outlay to lose should they complain. If you do decide to take the risk then make sure removing the logos is a simple cost free process.

Interesting comments in this thread here -> http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=23148

Rob

Horace

You can be sued for using logos without permission and even for using similar fonts - Harrods recently sued a cafe for having a sign that looked similar to their own, other corporates also sue such as Disney, McDonalds etc. etc. Better to not use the logos or face hefty penalties because these brands will most certainly sue.

jexygirl

As Horace said, you can get into lots of expensive trouble.
Think i posted before that the lady who embroiders my staff t shirts, has pre set patterns inbuilt in her posh machine.
She did some purses and bits with winnie the poo, eyeore, mickey mouse etc, displayed them at a local hotel - a trading standards or whatever they are person stayed, and saw the stuff, tracked her and she was fined alot of money. Despite it being an industrial machine, as opposed to my lesser version! The winnie the pooh etc patterns were built in as part of the industrial machine... however, apparently can only be used for personal use, not commercial...despite it being a commercial machine.

I also seem to remember someone in brighton or bognor or blackpool (somewhere with b!) opening a burger bar and her name was mary or mama or something and she called the place "Big Ms" and had a big yellow M as her logo and lit sign, not disimilar to a more famous yellow M. She was sued, fined extortionate amounts and made to change the logo and signage - think she went out of buisness as a result - was some years back though.

As PN says the designer should have known better, or looked into it at the very least if its as a favour to you.

Wasnt there a recent poster too, who had a forum where people posted pictures, and he was being pursued for copyright because images his users had posted where copyrighted, so even tho he hadn't posted them, it was his site? Can't remember the ins and outs.

Guess the upshot of my waffle is it's best not to unless you want to run the risk of fines / being sued
Jex

agrinnall

I doubt very much if any of the people referred to were fined, I'd expect it to be a civil matter not criminal. But getting sued is at best a risk and at worst a certainty.

kbh4031

Thanks everyone for your replies. Im not suprised by the answers to be honest, but I wanted to check
The guy that designs my stuff has not long left uni and is still very nieve, he is supposed to be designing me a website as well thats going to cost me over £2000, so on that note I think I need to find some one with a bit more experience for a big job like this

Thanks again x

seismicryan

My only question on this is... if you are selling products, lets say Nike shirts for example, surely you NEED to use their logos on your advertisements? When you go into a shoe shop it will have a nike sign up... must these be POS material issued by nike them selves?

In my business, our brand logo is used by our stockests, as are all of our competitors logos...

Ryan