A logo is much more than a trademark. It is your online identity. You can be assured that your identity is being .borrowed.: used where you do not want it, and in places you do not know of.
Trademark lawyers know that trademark law recognizes both word marks and logo marks as being equal in the eyes of the law. But in the eyes of the consumer there is a vast difference. A word such a .delta. could identify any number of companies but the logo of Delta Airlines unmistakably refers to only one company.
A logo-be it the Nike .swoosh. design, the Harley Davidson .cycle. logo or the Coca-Cola red square and .swirl. design- represents the sum total of a consumer.s associations with a brand. As such, they are invaluable assets, worth millions of dollars to their owners. Consumers wear logos on their clothing and are drawn to buy all types of merchandise that bear the logos of a particular college, company, team, etc. For example, as part of a court settlement, tobacco companies recently agreed to stop selling clothes and other merchandise bearing their logos because the positive consumer association was so strong.
Logos are especially important on the Internet. The Internet is the ultimate visual medium, and attracting eyeballs to stay at a website is critical to the site owner.s success. Additionally, the average Internet user is thought to have a short attention span. While the author of this article does not necessarily agree, popular marketing wisdom states that these users will wait no more than eight seconds for a web page to attract their interest before going elsewhere. To keep the user from fleeing, some website owners first display an eye-catching visual symbol while the rest of the web page loads. This symbol is most often a familiar and attractive logo, usually associated with a company or product that most appeals to the web site.s likely customers. For example, an Internet surfer in search of a website is much more likely to stay at a site prominently featuring logos of popular teams, the Olympic rings or a favorite beer.
Ahh, the Internet.It should come as no wonder that the most pervasive misuse of digital assets on the Internet today consists of the unauthorized use of logos and images. Persons who have made no effort to develop good will of their own readily attempt to attract user attention by placing familiar visual symbols in a website. Many of these actually belong to others, including trademarks and proprietary artwork. These people are parasites, stealing the good will of others.
Logos, graphics, and images are easily copied from other Web sites. One need only position the cursor over the desired image, click once on the right mouse button, then select the "Save As" feature. The user may then choose a name for the file that will hold an electronic copy of the image. While the user can modify the image, usually they will simply incorporate the image "as is" into another Web site. Anytime intellectual property can be accurately, easily and cheaply (in this case at no perceptible cost) duplicated there is going to be a lot of infringing activity (take, for example, the digital downloading of music, which we will address in another column).
Honest or Not?The theft of logos and graphics off a web site is not an .honest mistake.. While, arguably, descriptive wording common to the trade can be unconsciously copied, no one accidentally happens to have your artwork, graphics or custom designed logo.
Graphics and logos of famous trademarks are also used to create instant eye appeal and credibility to a web site wishing to enhance its own credibility. Web site owners will often attempt to attach the good will of a famous mark to their own by presenting them side by side, a practice known as co-logoing.
People who steal logos and other proprietary graphics also use them as clickable .links.. These may lead the Internet user to a page selling inferior or second hand products, competing products, or even pornography. Even if the products sold are genuine products, most trademark owners strenuously object to the unauthorized use of the graphic logo as a link. On both the Internet and in the brick and mortar world, graphics and logos are authorized for use only by the company.s subsidiaries and specific authorized dealers, distributors, resellers, and developers. And even then, strict licensing guidelines are usually outlined, allowing the trademark owner to withdraw the consent if the guidelines are not followed. That is how important logos are to their owners.
No One?There are no commercial search engines that reliably track the abuse of logos and other graphics, because search engines only look for and track words. Further, search engines do not find more than a fraction of available web pages and don.t index every word on them. Searching and monitoring companies that rely on .commercial. search engine databases, or some .enhanced. version of them, suffer from the same problem.
With its patent-pending digital fingerprinting process and spidering capabilities, only ImageLock provides the user with the assurance that unauthorized users of its logos and graphics as well as its word marks and text strings will be found. Scanning virtually the entire Internet, ImageLock.s sophisticated and intelligent technology finds everything. Furthermore, the member will be able to quickly and easily separate the authorized users from the inoffensive users to offensive ones.
The rules have changed. The Internet represents a new era, and trademark owners must use the best available service to be prepared for protecting their image.