Do it yourself logo generators
Thought we’d start off Friday morning with a rant about the so-called ‘do-it-yourself’ logo generator sites currently popping up all over the internet. Perform a ‘logo design’ search on any search engine and you’ll invariably bump into these flash-driven web sites, promising you variations of logo Nirvana - all you have to do is select an icon from their library of clip art (oh yes they are), type in your company name and Bob, as they say, is your Uncle. Here’s a few top-ranked versions that I’ve snagged from a Google search.
Make Your Own Logo - No clip art. Professionally Designed 1000s of unique logos. Only $49!
You make your Logo. Custom symbols just $39
Nice. click on any of the links and you’ll find helpful folks claiming that anyone can design a logo for free (though the ‘free logo’ bit is linkbait), paying only $39, $49 or $99 to own it. Certainly reads like a deal. But like the sage advice tells us, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Upon closer inspection, these sites aren’t selling ‘logo design’ per se - more accurately they’re making a library of clip-art icons (some good, some not so good) available via a web site (as opposed to those cumbersome clip-art books of days gone by). How they work is this - you add your company name using (usually) public domain (ie: free) typography, and then download the so-called ‘customized’ design. I’d argue that changing the size of artwork is not customization. Neither is flipping, flopping or changing the colors. This is simply the digital era version of clip art with a funky web-based, Flash-driven, distribution system. And while these kind folks exclaim that their services do not sell ‘clip art’, by the every definition of the phrase, they most certainly are. Let’s take a looksee…
Library of pre-fab designs. Check.
Offered to multiple people. Check.
They continue to hold the rights to the design so that other folks can purchase. Check.
Sounds awfully like clip art to me. We could also describe the process as the employment of logo templates, another bad idea. One even goes on to outline their ‘design process’ thusly -
Just five quick steps and you’re done: 1) Choose an image, 2) Find your industry, 3) Select a symbol, 4) Add your company name, and 5) Create a layout.
That’s pretty well verbatim the how I’d write a ‘five step how to use a clip art in your logo’ feature for this blog. There’s more serious concerns too. If you read the fine print (buried under ‘legals’, 5 monitors deep and written in 9pt type), you’ll see that they’re not even sure(!) if the designs that they’re selling are theirs to sell, even when offered in the context of clip art. Accordingly, they’d like you to police the intellectual property rights of their artwork, and if you run into any legal issues, please drop ‘em a line..
(3) Third Party Rights. If Users believe any content appearing on the Web Site infringes another party’s rights, please to notify us of this infringement.
Nice touch. If one of their (one claims 10,000, another 15,000) pre-fab icons just happens to infringe on someone else’s copyright and/or trademark, could you be so kind as to let the good people know. Not a word about what might happen to someone who’s already downloaded the supposedly ‘customized’ logo and are happily reproducing it on every shred of business and marketing material they own. In case you were wondering about what responsibility these ‘Do it yourself’ sites have, the disclaimer of one clearly states what responsibility they’ll ultimately own up to. Nada.
…no obligation or duty to perform trade or service mark searches to validate the propriety or legality of the customized logo.
…does not represent or warrant that we have the exclusive right, title and interest in and to the products or services provided to you or that such products or services do not and will not infringe on the intellectual property or proprietary rights of any third party.
Legally, they claim no obligation to make sure that any logos are original, or even legit to use. They’re not even claiming that THEY own the icons in the first place. And when you buy one of these logos, how much of it do you actually own? Ahm. Not a scrap.
The rights for the image itself are retained by XXXXX. The symbols will remain on the database for possible further use.
‘Possible use’ is legalese mumbo-jumbo that sees the outfit retaining the rights to sell the logo you’ve purchased to someone else. One can presume a lot of someone else’s. I guess what really pisses me off about these sites is that seem to view the small business owner as a fool who’s not supposed to realize that this method of ‘logo design’ is suspect, and not supposed to realize that a logo is supposed to be original. They claim that they’re not selling clip art logos (which they very much are) and, unfortunately, that simple claim probably works on 95% of their targeted audience (who, as we’ve previously noted, may not fully understand what clip-art actually is). The small business owner probably figures they’ve just saved $100s, or $1000s, of dollars on their corporate identity using this new-fangled ‘do it yourself‘ technology. On one of the FAQ sections on these sites, visitors have supposedly, and repeatedly (that’s the frequently part), asked the question - “Can I trademark my logo?”. The helpful people answer -
Yes. What makes a logo unique is the combination of the symbol with the company name, its colors, and their spatial relationship. Therefore, although XXXXX retains the copyright to the symbol you choose, you can still trademark your logo.
They go on to claim that you can trademark what they describe as the ‘customized version’ of their icon. The ‘customization’ described is a misnomer - nobody is actually ‘customizing’ the logo but merely adding type to it. Or changing the color. And while INAL (I’m Not A Lawyer), and my legal opinion is worth what you’ve paid for it, the last time I looked, ’spacial relationship’ had very little to do with logo trademark (try telling the Trademark Office that it’s okay for you to use the Apple icon because it’s further away from the text than the original), color has absolutely nothing to do with it (as far as I’m aware, most TM registration documents are in BW) and a trademark can be turned down if a design is even remotely similar to another. Then again, maybe these good folks are privy to some trademark info that I missed. Though, taking their word at face value, and if I did manage to jump through the hoops required to get a TM on one of these icons, I’m sure as hell not going to sit back while 10s, or even 100s, of other companies use the same symbol that I just spent thousands to trademark. Nosiree - the legal beagles would be typing up the C & D letters as fast as I could give them addresses to send them to. ‘Spatial relationship’ be damned…
