Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York
I am creating an iPhone app for universities. Does it go against copyright law if I use the college logo in my app without consent. I am not pretending to be the college or be affiliated, but I am making it clear that the Logo is associated with that college name. It is a social media app.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Generally speaking, this is a trademark matter and not a copyright matter. Though the concept of trademark fair use exists, it is likely that you will not fall under this exception and would be precluded from using the logos for your commercial purposes. This is not a legal determination and any ability to use the logogs depends in a large part on the nature of your app. This is a fairly complicated area of law and as such you should get attorney advice since this seems to be an important feature in your app.
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Roman R. Fichman, Esq.
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