OK, guys, it’s time for us to have that talk. Yes, that talk. You see, when a (wo)man really loves a logo, something special happens. Sometimes it’s pure and natural. Sometimes it’s sordid and delicious. But more often than not, it’s creation of a connection. The connection of ownership. We know this is a touchy subject when we start getting into intellectual properties and infringement of said properties so please bear with us here.

If you don’t feel like reading a lot of specifics, here’s the basic breakdown:
*Report possible copyright violations to us using the “Report This” links.
*DO NOT publicly accuse designers using comments. Report it to us or email the designer.
*If you are not satisfied with our handling of the matter, you may submit a DMCA Notfication form.

First and foremost, the best way for all of us to approach this is with vigilance, mutual respect and discretion. If you have a concern regarding a submitted design, whether it be suspected infringement or outright stealing of one of your designs, please contact us directly first. We will investigate the matter and take action from there. We can’t interpret potential copyright infringement until a suspected case is reported to us. And be sure that you do report it to us. Do not make public accusations through comments, as that constitutes defamation.

However, in cases where you just think a designer might not be aware of a similar design, you could probably just shoot them a polite email saying as much. We’d only recommend doing this if you are worried they might take offense to you reporting them to us.

An example might be: “Hey, Joe, I saw your new logo you posted and I just wanted to give you a heads up I’ve seen a similar design somewhere you might’ve missed in your research. I could be wrong, but here’s a link to it, let me know what you think.”

It’s all about being friendly and positive.

We reserve the right to take down designs which violate our terms of use or to suspend/terminate accounts at our discretion. If you are unsatisfied with our actions taken regarding alleged copyright violations, you may submit to us a DMCA copyright infringement notification form, bearing in mind that if you misrepresent any information in your claim, you are liable for any damages or costs, including court costs and lawyers. You can find our address and other contact information here. If you have one of your designs taken down as a result of a copyright notification, you may file a counter-notification to have your design reinstated pending potential legal action on the part of the user who filed the initial notification. So don’t think you can get away with just accusing people you don’t like, willy nilly.

Now that you know how to handle the situation, let’s go over what are grounds for such action. First of all, an exact copy of your own design being submitted by someone else is a no-brainer. We’ll metaphorically slap those people for being so brazen. OK, maybe not slap, but we’ll deal with them swiftly, no questions asked. Less clear cases involve the idea of concepts versus their execution and implementation. Concepts are generalized themes or ideas. It’s OK to reuse concepts. Execution and implementation deals with exact methods and styles of using those concepts. It is NOT acceptable to reuse someone else’s implementation of a concept.

Encroachment is not the only issue that we must address. I’m sure most of you already know this or wouldn’t think to do it anyway, but stock images and elements protected by Creative Commons are off limits for logo designs. Without going into the boring details of it, just ask yourself whether you as a company would want your exclusive logo to contain elements that could still be used by other people in their own designs. It would render a trademark impossible and it just wouldn’t work.

About fonts. Oh, man… fonts. OK, well the thing about fonts is that in most cases you probably do not own the rights to the fonts you use. To make them usable in a logo design, you must make sure you are converting your fonts to outline paths. If you design your own fonts or have purchased rights to your fonts, you’re in the clear so have fun with your pretty characters. If you’re looking for more information, read this blog post where we conveniently talked about fonts.

Sorry for all of the legal mumbo jumbo, but it really is something we needed to clarify for all involved. We don’t anticipate having to deal with a lot of this, but in every community there are members who like to do stuff like this simply for the sake of being evil. Brandstack: standing up against evildoers.
RECAP OF DESIGN RIGHTS GUIDELINES:
*Exact copies of designs are obviously prohibited
*Concepts can be re-used
*Re-using implementation and execution of concepts is prohibited
*No stock images or creative commons
*Fonts must be converted to outlines, be your own design or be owned