Logo Design -- legal review procedures?

[jdr999]

Hi all,

For those of you who do logo design, do you also do any kind of legal review or trademark search on your designs?

I'm filling out a new business insurance form and they ask:

"Do the applicant's activities involve design of logos or trademarks?"

"Description of legal review procedures for trademarks/copyrights:"

Thanks,
Joe

 

[PrintingFools]

This is very interesting. As those question did not appear on our insurance.
We do put the responsibility of obtaining a trademark or copyrights in the hands of the client.

Once they approve the final logo we give them a package of about 7-10 files.
These files are the logo saved in different formats. (pdf, tiff, jpeg, ai and Png)
As well as a the logo in 1 color, 2 color and 4 color
They are now the responsible for there own files.

Before the client sees our draft logos, we do a simple google reverse image search.
We do this to make sure that we have not designed a logo that looks like something that already out there.
We do not use stock images or stock logos in our designs.

 

[jdr999]

This is very interesting. As those question did not appear on our insurance.
We do put the responsibility of obtaining a trademark or copyrights in the hands of the client.

Those questions got me thinking. What if we/you designed a logo, money was spent on signage (vehicles, building, etc.) and later got a cease and desist? Who would be financially responsible for the rebranding?

 

[gsbatch]

I always do a quick TESS search at the USPTO website before investing time in a logo that is to be trademarked or will have a TM or SM.

 

[OffsetStorefront]

I have a memory of someone posting about a similar topic some time ago - some US legal precedent for the printer being liable for printing trademarked or copyrighted material supplied by the client? Sound familiar to anyone? I know our shop doesn't have the capacity to verify the client owns and has license for all images, fonts, etc.

 

[jdr999]

Understood.

I think my question was more about what if we/you designed a logo from scratch that later turns out to be too close to someone else's that we've never seen before. Who would be the responsible party for any out of pocket client expenses?