Copyright

[Gordon Brown]

I imagine that company logos are both copyrighted and trademarked but does that extend to use where there would be no public use? For example, suppose I get commissioned by Asda to do some work on branding/advertising, and want to use images of their competitor stores (Tesco, Morrison, Sainsbuty, Waitrose) in exploring what people paid to give an opinion online or to an interviewer think of them all.

Can I snatch images from royalty free images on the web to show to people without infringing copyright or trademark?

I bet it goes on all of the time but wondered if anyone knew the legal position?

[LDNrevs]

No-one ever bats an eyelid so you'll be fine.. they'll only come knocking if you start to make $$ on a large scale from the use of their image.

[Eric Mc]

Strictly speaking you have no legal right to put other business' logos on your business' stationery and advertising or promotional literature. However, many businesses seem to do this anyway and, by and large, the "big boys" tend not to do anything about it.

However, every now and then they may decide to take action and try to make an example of someone just to remind everybody of the legal situation.

A number of years ago, the Rover Group got very shirty about small independent garages using the MG logo in their business signs and stationery. They made announcements in the press that they were clamping down on any businesses using the MG motif without having obtained permission from them and threatening all sorts of legal actions.
The ironic thing is that many of the small independent MG repair and sales operations still exist - whilst Rover does not.

[Gordon Brown]

LDNrevs said:

No-one ever bats an eyelid so you'll be fine.. they'll only come knocking if you start to make $$ on a large scale from the use of their image.

I hoped that was the case because I suspect they are all using easy others images for marketing research anyway and nobody will want to upset the neighbours!