How to Make Sure Your Design or Logo is Unique and Not Copyrighted
Protect yourself from getting sued and avoid the pitfalls of copyright infringement by understanding the basics and learn how to search for similar designs.
There have been so many questions I have received from students throughout the years and this one is big.
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How do I make sure I do not copy someone else’s design work? Like a logo design for example?
This is a huge issue that comes up time and time again in my student communities and other design communities. There is not one single database to search for a logo design, for example, to see if it is copyrighted. It will depend on which country that copyright or trademark has been registered in. This all can feel a bit overwhelming and complex but I did some of the tough research work so you did not have to!
Before we dive in, we need to know that there is a difference between copyrighted logos, registered copyrighted logos and registered trademarks.
Copyright: I can create a unique enough design and it automatically gets granted some copyright protection without me having to register the design. My unique creative work becomes mine to own and sell as long as it does not bear too much similarity to another design. Logos that consist of a simple typeface (Helvetica for example) cannot be copyrighted and copyrights apply mostly to artistic work, not names. Company names and tag-lines are better protected through trademarks.
It is wise to put a copyright symbol with most logos to educate others that it is copyrighted (even without the symbol it is still copyrighted automatically when you create something, but at least it provides awareness of the copyright).
An example would be this: Copyright © 2020 Lindsay Marsh. In a logo you can put the © symbol in the lower or upper right hand corner. Make it small enough to be read but not large enough to be obtrusive to the design.
If you really want to read more about this I found this excellent resource that dives into copyrights much further here.
Registered Copyrights: You can officially register the copyright protection that is automatically granted to you when you create a design. This is a further step to register the copyright registry (of your country) and is voluntary. If you ever want to bring someone to court for using your design in the United States it is required to have your copyright registered first.
Registered Trademarks: This is the best protection any logo can have from theft and gives the entire Logo Design and name protection. This best protects the intellectual property of a Logo design but requires payment and an application to be filled out at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or another trademark office in the country where you want trademark protection. Not everyone gets granted a trademark; it has to be proven that your trademark is unique and not already registered in the database in that country.
This is done on a per country basis. Meaning, I can go through the process of trademarking a logo in my country, yet still be unprotected in another country where I have yet to register one. International companies usually register trademarks for their logos in the top countries they provide their projects or services in and cannot do every country.
Once granted, you can use the coveted ® symbol in the lower or upper right area of your logo mark or word mark. Those still waiting for a ® approval can use the ™ mark.
So what does this all mean for me as an everyday designer?
Let’s do an example. I created a generic logo design but I wanted to make sure a company is not already using a similar symbol. If they created the unique design first they are granted copyright protection and would retain it if we were ever to go to court about the matter.
If that company has the logo trademarked they would have even more protection and would be able to block me from ever using it (and even sue me if I tried to sell it or make money from it!). YIKES!
That is a bit scary as there is not one simple website to go and find all instances of it being used or registered. It is a bit complicated.
Here are a few basic steps I could follow.
**Also, just as a side note, I am not a legal professional so take this advice with a grain of salt. This is just a method I have come up with after many years of research.**
1.) Search your country’s registered trademark database. The one for the United States is here and I do not always find this step helpful because trademarks are very word based. I can look up a company name and make sure it is not similar but I am mostly interested in finding out if my design matches another logo design visually.
That is why you need to go to the design code page here (see screenshot below) and look up a special code you can put in the trademark search above that will allow it to specifically search for symbols in that category.
So, for example, if I have an evergreen tree logo, I would input the numbers 05.01.01 into the main trademark search to then list all image trademarks that have that particular type of visual symbol.
After typing that code 05.01.01 into the main trademark search database here I was able to generate a list of searches that had logos using evergreen tree symbols. This is one of the results below. I cannot create a symbol that too closely resembles anything in this database or I risk being sued for trademark infringement. I also cannot use a similar name either as the name is also protected.
It can be overwhelming as thousands of search results came back— 46,000 to be exact. There are 46,000 other logos that use pine trees!
How on earth can I design something unique that is outside of so many different officially trademarked designs? I will talk a bit later on about how to make a logo “unique enough”.
For complex designs and illustrations it is easy to be different. It is hard to copy intricate design work without deliberately copying the work.
You can be “inspired” by another person’s work, but put your own spin on it enough for it to be uniquely copyrighted or trademarked. There is no hard-or-fast rule on what “unique enough” is and each case is determined in the court of law.
The logo below is fairly complex and to get in trouble for having a similar logo you would have need to copy everything quite closely and intentionally.
None of this is making me feel any better. Should I just quit being a designer because everything else has already been created?
No, because you can always add just a bit of personal touch to any design and make it your own. We all have a unique style and the more expressive we are in our designs the better chance we have of creating something truly unique.
Just because a random symbol of a tree was trademarked 20 years ago does not make a similar looking tree out of the question for your logo design. Just don’t do a trace of that symbol so as to be indistinguishable from that trademarked symbol.
The more complex a design the less likelihood of it being confused with another one. That does not mean we should make overly complex logos. Hang with me here.
Simple geometric logos can be a bit more tricky. I am sure we have all designed similar looking logos to one another when we do these types of designs. The good news is there is some protection, because common shapes, letters and symbols cannot be trademarked or copyrighted.
According to the Digital Media Law Project “In general, copyright does not protect individual words, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; or mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents. (However, copyright protection may be available, if the artwork of the symbol or design contains sufficient creativity.)”
That means that familiar symbols or designs can be used without fear of already being under copyright. That means my simple geometric logo and designs are most likely safe to use.
If you really want to read an official declaration of what is included as a familiar or common shape you can read this resource here on the copyright.gov website. On page six of that resource is a wonderful example of what would be considered copyrighted or not when it comes to basic shapes.
2.) A more approachable way to find similarly designed logos is the do a reverse Google image search.
Just go to images.google.com and there is a small camera icon next to the search bar. Upload your design there and it will return results back that are similar.
You are able to adjust the focus window on a particular part of the logo, in my case just the symbol.
I am able to find popular uses of this same symbol. I went through the searches to find the one that best matched the one I uploaded. I found an app available on the Apple App Store that used a logo VERY similar to the one I created.
I was not surprised, after all, my logo uses basic geometric shapes. Those basic shapes, copyright “may” not apply to the design. This app logo may not be protected well because of its simplicity, but the brand, the logo or the name could still be trademarked. I do not see a trademarked symbol but we cannot assume it is not.
If this logo was trademarked along with the name it could pursue damages if I decided to create a competing app with too close of a similarity to it.
If I was doing something totally unrelated to its industry, I might fly under the radar but still not outside of the possibility of being sued. You can get sued for sneezing in my country, HA!
Let’s say I was interested in creating another health app like this one. I may need to be a bit more unique to protect myself or my client IF I found it it was a registered trademark. I also wanted to avoid using colors that are just alike to further distance myself from looking like I was trying to rip off their design or brand identity. I created an updated version with some more unique tweaks to see what came up in a reverse google image search.
This one came up with less matches. There was one, however, that used the same concept of the band-aid going across the plus sign.
It was a sticker sold at Walmart. I can see similarities but I also see many differences. I can see inspiration from one to the other but I do not see “copying”. Once again this is all up to the court to decide, but I think the differences are enough and the symbol is basic and common enough for this, perhaps, to not be an issue.
You can see this constant back and forth in this process of making sure you are not infringing on the copyright of another piece of artwork.
The last thing we want to do is be told our logo looks just like someone else’s when that may not have been our intention.
Sometimes similarities happen by fault or by the sheer fact that there are so many shapes, letters and symbols that can be created in the world. Similar to music notes, there are only so many different combinations. Big business can sue quickly for the tiniest of similarities.
Walgreens, a large drugstore company, decided to sue a regional grocery store called Wegmans. Walgreens claimed their logo has been around since the 1930s and deserved trademark protection.
They argued there were too many commonalities between the two logos. Wegmans, the smaller grocery store company, hit back with a claim that they used a similar “W” on their bags dating back to the 1930’s.
I honestly think the differences were much greater than the similarities. First of all the Walgreens logo has a distinct loop in the center of the W and the Wegmans logo features an exaggerated right arm of the W. If Wegmans were to continue this in course I think they could have won based on these differences.
In the end the grocery store Wegmans settled the case for an undisclosed amount. They also agreed to stop using the Wegmans logo on all package designs by 2012 although they still use it as their main signage today, which may have been part of the agreement.
They said the cost of continuing in court would have been too great of a risk and settlement was the most logical option. Kind of unfair if you ask me, what do you think? Are they different enough?
Just a little cautionary tale on how crazy big business gets over their logos and symbols. They are also in totally unrelated industries at first glance, but since they are both consumer focused retailers that might have been enough for Walgreens to sue.
Hopefully this article gave you a bit more insight to this complex legal process.
Once again I am not a legal professional so these are just some exercises I do when creating logos to further protect myself. This is an incredibly sensitive and case dependent topic as there is no exact definition created that defines creative uniqueness as pertained to copyright protection.
The best thing we can do as designers is to continue to innovate and be distinct. With the rise of AI technology this issue gets even more complex.
Recently, it was declared by US District Court that AI generated artwork (Artificial Intelligence, not Adobe Illustrator Ha!) was not granted automatic copyright protection like human generated designs are. They further explained that they believe “[h]uman authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright.”
This is a step in the right direction but what about Adobe programs coming out the image editing tools that use the same AI generation methods? We can now create designs in Photoshop with the help of AI but also by our own human hands. What part of that design gets copyright protection if it is a blended creation? You can see this issue of copyright protection will only be more critical to follow and discuss.
Copyright law as it pertains to imagery will get more murky and gray as we navigate the future of design.
I am glad I got a chance to answer this super common question and if you are interested in learning more about this topic let me know. I would love to research and write more about the topics YOU are interested in!
Let me know what thoughts or questions below!
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Just hanging out here in the comments!
I'm so glad you highlighted this topic as I was looking into copyrights vs trademarks.