Fair Use or Not?

April 23, 2008 7:13 AM

YANAL filter: Quick question about United States trademark law and fair use of logos on a website.

I am creating a website for our (United States, New York) college's Foreign Language Computer Lab. One of the pages contains a listing of the software packages available for use in the lab, and a brief description of each. Next to the description is a (small, low-resolution) copy of the logo for the given software package. Is this legal, or does it violate trademark/copyright law?

I think it's fair use, but the director of the Lab is concerned that we would be opening ourselves up to a possible lawsuit, since we don't have formal written permission from all of the companies. What does the hive mind think, or do you have any similar experience?

posted by fvox13 to law & government (3 comments total)

This is the very definition of fair use. Remember, trademark law is designed to prevent consumer confusion, not to prevent people from speaking the name (or showing a picture) of the mark.
posted by Jairus at 7:23 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Wikipedia says "In the United States, the fair use defense protects uses that would be otherwise protected by the First Amendment. Fair use may be asserted on two grounds, either that the alleged infringer is using the mark to accurately describe an aspect of its products, or that the alleged infringer is using the mark to identify the mark owner."

I was just researching trademark and copyright law for my own website this weekend and found these useful videos over at Tubetorial (the trademark one has a nice overview, but the example they use is for domain names, not logos):

Trademark Law and Your Blog Domain Name -this gives a nice overview of trademark law as it applies to domain names,

Copyright Issues for Bloggers
posted by scrumtralescent at 7:29 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

You are approaching this question all wrong. You have a free lawyer, the General Counsel of your university. They will provide the guidance you need to answer this question. They are supposed to handle this. Look in the directory for your school for their number. Tell your boss that you should contact them.

I am not your lawyer, this is not legal advice, just advice to seek legal advice.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:08 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]