Let's say that I have a website, which allows people to go there and input what they have recently bought,( a Gucci t-shirt for instance). The information then will be displayed on users profiles (Alex bought a Gucci t-shirt). Will be it allowed for the website to use Gucci logo on the user's profile?, or in the categories( to show people who have bought Gucci products). Would the same apply to using brands' names, on the profiles? (Gucci , in this case ). Will brands usually ask the website to remove the information related to them?P.S Users are NOT charged for adding the content, nor for registration.
hello
generally, under fair use, you are allowed to reference a brand/TM to the extent it is necessary to describe the goods (but no more). so if you are using the logo in order to indicate the brand or describe the product then that should be ok. however, you should not make it too prominent or overuse it, and it would be better to just use the name and not the logo.
At the end of the day, these issues are not clear cut and you want to avoid trouble...in most cases, only a court can determine whether what you are doing is permissible or not, and some TM owners are more aggressive than others...so there is uncertainty there
Alright, thanks for your response. One question though. If a trademark owner feels that his trademark has been violated, and is not happy with their logo being on the website. Will they ask us to remove it first, or they will go straight to the court?
they will most likely ask you to remove it....it would be rare to just file a lawsuit
if they want more they willl ask for it before going to court
Ok. Thanks :)