Chuck B
Full Access Member
Dragon,
I was in an interesting position of a MAJOR corporation using a logo that was similar to one our business group used. (yes it was copyrighted) We got tons of calls from every swinging lawyer on the west coast to go after them. Long story short we never did but the corporation allowed us to use their name brand as a tie in without payment.
I did learn much about infringement and such going through that. Bottomline....your logo's dont have to be that close to get yourself tied up in a legal battle. As for talking directly to one another...? I don't know a lawyer who would EVER recommend doing that. They are obviously being proactive in protecting their logo and certain they have retained counsel who made it very clear you come out of the gate swinging.
In my situation it was never ever mentioned when we communicated with the corporation directly. They knew who we were. We simply requested our desire to use their brand name in our advertising campaign. They replied with normal legalese in a contract with dollar amount of zero. We were satisfied...a little quid pro quo
I was in an interesting position of a MAJOR corporation using a logo that was similar to one our business group used. (yes it was copyrighted) We got tons of calls from every swinging lawyer on the west coast to go after them. Long story short we never did but the corporation allowed us to use their name brand as a tie in without payment.
I did learn much about infringement and such going through that. Bottomline....your logo's dont have to be that close to get yourself tied up in a legal battle. As for talking directly to one another...? I don't know a lawyer who would EVER recommend doing that. They are obviously being proactive in protecting their logo and certain they have retained counsel who made it very clear you come out of the gate swinging.
In my situation it was never ever mentioned when we communicated with the corporation directly. They knew who we were. We simply requested our desire to use their brand name in our advertising campaign. They replied with normal legalese in a contract with dollar amount of zero. We were satisfied...a little quid pro quo
