4 ms·
Ask HN: Whether my logo will sued or not?
I have launched my Tweelerts android app in beta. My friend suggested me that i might get sued by Twitter because of twitter bird in logo (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/594034922827882496/SDPDv7J1.png )
Please view my logo above and suggest whether i need to change my twitter bird or not . I took this twitter bird from https://www.iconfinder.com and it has license "Creative Commons (Attribution 3.0 Unported)"
- pavlov 11y agoThe Twitter bird is a registered trademark. It doesn't legally mean anything that someone posted a drawing of it online with a CC license.
- haidrali 11y agoso you mean i should change it since its registered trademark
- pavlov 11y agoI'm not a lawyer, but think of it this way: if a company makes phones and puts the Apple logo on them, Apple won't be happy when they find out... Or if the company manufactures shoes that have the Nike logo, it's considered a counterfeit product. For Twitter, their product is software. Like Apple and Nike, they're a big public corporation. So why take the risk?
- mod 11y agoI think you'll get asked to change it before sued, but either way, it's not kosher. You need a new logo.
- maxharris 11y agoYou definitely need a new logo.
- sexymac 11y agohttps://dev.twitter.com/overview/general/image-resources https://dev.twitter.com/overview/general/image-resources Twitter allows you to use it in your applications. they just have rules you must follow. Read more below https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets
- suprjami 11y agoThis, and contact trademarks@twitter.com to confirm with them.
- sexymac 11y agoYour method of use breaks the rules of usage. Don’t: Use speech bubbles or words around the bird I would suggest creating a new logo
- declan 11y ago>I took this twitter bird from https://www.iconfinder.com https://www.iconfinder.com and it has license "Creative Commons (Attribution 3.0 Unported)" First, Creative Commons licenses only deal with copyright, as far as I can recall, not trademark rights. Second, you don't even know that whoever put it on iconfinder.com and released it under Creative Commons had the right to do so; they may have uploaded a copyrighted image that you are now unwittingly using, and unwitting use is no defense against liability. Third, you are violating Twitter's guidelines, so as an ethical -- non-legal -- matter, you should stop. Fourth, you're likely violating trademark law, which is designed to protect Twitter from having its official apps confused with others; yours looks like an official one. Fifth, Twitter is likely a famous mark, meaning its trademarks are protected against dilution even if consumers aren't confused. Famous marks get extra trademark rights. Sixth, it looks like your app relies on Twitter's API and would be worthless if you get cut off. So you should have a strong incentive not to piss them off. Seventh, as a practical matter Twitter may not notice and send you a C&D immediately (or ever), but if you become big enough to notice, you may be liable for retroactive damages from the time of first infringing use. It may be okay to use temporary icons as placeholders for apps in private alpha or beta, but it looks like yours is already in the app store. For example, I have a non-final icon for https://recent.io/ https://recent.io/ right now but have a contract with a designer to prepare a final one pre-launch and am iterating with her this week. You might want to do the same; look at previous HN threads about how to find designers.