What if someone copied my logo

Compare these costs of money and time to what you could actually make from the infringement. Now if the producer of a Hollywood blockbuster stole something you created, you would probably want to pursue that case, because the movie made a lot of money off your work. Is that paycheck worth the hassle of going to court? Events Innovation Festival. Follow us:.

By Mark Wilson 5 minute Read. Design Co. Design Louis Vuitton bags, Nike shoes, stool samples: Inside the bizarre economy of unclaimed Amazon packages. Exactly where that line lies is perhaps different for every designer. My best advice is to consciously avoid ripping off the ideas of others by using inspirational artwork as a leaping point for your own significantly different creation.

Anyone active in the online design community has probably heard or seen a thing or two from Von Glitschka vonster for my fellow Twits. Von is an amazingly talented Illustrator with a portfolio rich in impressive character illustrations, hand drawn lettering and logo designs.

Unfortunately, as Von has discovered, you can make people like your work so much that they want to claim it as their own. The original artwork above was not only ripped off, but actually uploaded to a stock art site to sell to other designers! The ignorance this thief showed towards the likelihood of someone finding this is quite remarkable!

It definitely makes you wonder where the other tattoo art came from as well! This artist took the time to adjust the facial features a bit, no doubt to give themselves a little arguing room should they get caught.

Here we see that fine line between inspiration and theft being flirted with. Some might say that the final result is different enough than the original to no justify theft, however I disagree completely and so did Von. The angle of the head, the shape of the cheek line and teeth, the oval nostril holes, and the waviness lines of the spew are all far too similar for the artist to claim that the artwork is original.

If you find that someone has indeed used your artwork without consent, the easiest thing to do is to get mad or even flattered and brush it off as out of your control. Here are a few tactics to try first some straight from the Vonster himself.

If you're looking to for specific instructions on how to do the process in the UK - check this article instead. Copyright Office website to ensure your logo design is unique. Besides, it is crucial to officially define, who holds the copyright for the logo the creator of logo or business, for which this logo was made to prevent possible conflicts about further actions.

Despite the way you apply for the copyright and the application phase, your copyright is effective since the date you submitted the form, NOT the date of its approval. As for registered copyright, you can protect usage of your logo, its publishing, distribution, and control how it is presented to the public. Having a registered trademark helps your clients to differentiate products from services your brand offers.

As it reads on the Jacob Cass' blog. As well as for the copyright, you should search the USPTO's database for trademarks, similar to your logo, and evaluate ones you find for possible conflicts. It will save you both money and efforts you could spend for the whole registration procedure because the USPTO doesn't make any research for similar logos until the very moment you submit the application.

For registering a trademark for your logo you have to:. In case of registered trademark, you can protect your brand identity and, what is the most important — prevent usage of your name and design by third parties. In fact, you are much more likely to have a copyright dispute over a stock photo that you place on your blog than a logo really. When the third party is using your trademark without authorization, which causes confusion about the source of the product it is considered trademark infringement.

Similarly to copyright infringement, when you prove your brand is actually suffering from trademark infringement, you are able to sue defendant mark. Trademark infringement not only make a loss in sells, but also hurts the brand when another one use similar elements but produce inferior quality. Apfelkind eng. Due to the Apple, cafe's logo red apple within child's face confuses customers and let them think that cafe is connected with tech giant in some way. As long as the owner of cafe Christin Roma refuses to change her cafe logo, Apple won't give up to sue everybody who dares to use an apple in the logo.

One of the funniest logo infringement cases was a Louis Vuitton claim against a South Korean fried chicken restaurant — Louis Vuitton Dak. The restaurant wasn't only using the mirrored logo of the famous brand for their packages, but even stole the name of it. Why should I check the web for copies? What tools should I use? You need the right tools for the job. By giorgia. Use these techniques to get better search results — 1.

Search with a high resolution image. Search with high quality, high resolution image files Google image search only accepts these file formats:. Isolate the main image. Flip the image By sah. Rotate the image Rotating an image slightly can make a huge difference in your search results. Got any image search tips? Share them in the comments below!

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