Rights: Trademark Representation

Certain photographs submitted to Fotolia are not accepted because they contain company trade marks and intellectually property which are strictly regulated by the patent laws. To help inform you about trademarks and intellectual property Fotolia suggests the following advice, precautions, and solutions regarding trademarks before submitting photographs to Fotolia.

What is a trade mark?

Intellectual Property defines trade marks as a likely sign of chart being used to distinguish the products or services from a person or entity.

A mark can be represented by various means such as:


  • A figure (1664 ™)
  • A word or group
  • A sign (rafters of citrôen ™)
  • A logo (logo of Fotolia ™)
  • A slogan, a neologism, a name patronymic
  • A drawing/illustration (mark of the crocodile Lacoste ™)
  • A color (Kodak™ film packaging)
  • A 3d representation (Renault ™ logo or Perrier ™ bottle )

Precautions to be taken

Fotolia refuses all images containing the representation of trademarks, it does not matter the means of this representation (see list above). Sometimes a trademark is captured by mistake into an image; you thus must to be vigilant in particular when you submit:

  • Images of people wearing clothes with trade marks (like Nike™)
  • Images of objects or food of daily newspapers
  • Images of cars, sport materials, or vehicles of any kind
  • Images in general comprising of trademarks in some form that it is

Solutions suggested

In order not to interfere with the legal trademark rights, is recommended to photographers:


  • 1 To choose objects that do not represent a company’s trademark
  • 2 To remove the trademarks of the objects photographed (Attention the design of the object may even be protected)
  • 3 If a mark appears discreetly, edit your photograph to make it disappear (not to forget to specify that the photograph has been edited when you submit the image to Fotolia)

We invite each photographer to take responsibility and respect trademark laws, patent rights, and intellectually property.

The next article will discuss the laws pertaining to illustrations and models deposited (like design of a computer, a train, a building...).

Technorati Tags : |

Posted by chad on 12:02, April 14 2005

Legal Issues Email to a friend Print Version

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog.fotolia.com/mt-tb.cgi/282

Comments

Hi! Do i need any release for famous landmarks or heritage landmarks like the Great Wall of China or Sydney Opera House and etc? Just for example...

Thanks

Posted by chan leong hin on 07:56, March 7 2006

Would I need any releases for a cityscape?
And how would I go about getting them?

Posted by George Moschouris on 13:17, September 7 2006

No you do not need a release for a true cityscape. However it may vary for each image.

Posted by Chad Bridwell on 20:22, September 8 2006

Post a comment

If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be pre-approved by Fotolia before your comment will appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.

Remember me


Stock images - Stock photos - Royalty free images - Royalty free photos Fotolia US Imágenes de archivo - Imágenes libres de derechos - Fotos de archivo - Fotos libres de derechos Fotolia España Photos libres de droits - Images libres de droits - Ilustrations libres de droits Fotolia France Stock images - Stock photos - Royalty free images - Royalty free photos Fotolia UK Bildarchiv - Fotoagentur - royalty-freie Fotos - Stock Images Fotolia Deutchland
 Fotolia Italia  Fotolia Portugal  Fotolia Brasil