Announcement Announcement Module
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Logo Rights Issue - What should I do??? Page Title Module
Move Remove Collapse
Conversation Detail Module
Collapse
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Logo Rights Issue - What should I do???

    #1
    I just gained a new client, a rather large client that will need tons of design work! It sounds to good to be true . . . well that may be the case.

    I needed to use their current logo. When they sent the full color logo to me, it was a .jpg at borderline quality. I didn't think much of it, but I sent it to my printer to let me know what the quality was going to be like when printed, and they said it wouldn't look good.

    So then I went back to my customer and asked for better artwork. After days of back and forth talk my customer finally spits out that the logo designer was not giving up the artwork too easy. Ahh, so now I figure out that it wasn't a matter of them finding the right disk, it was that they must not have the rights to it.

    I really want the job . . . what do I do now???
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I imagine they have they rights to it, but the designer doesn't want to lose their cash cow. What the client needs to do is find out if they own the logo, if so, they can go to the original designer and threaten a lawsuit. that's all i can think of.

    Comment

    • #3
      Shame on them for not knowing if they own their own logo
      and shame on the former designer for holding out.
      That's not the way it works in the real world.
      Your client needs to dig up the artwork contract on their logo.

      Comment

      • #4
        hoo boy.

        Sounds like a newbie 'designer', why hold the rights to a company logo?

        Comment

        • #5
          then again, Shell doesn't own their logo, they lease it from the designer.

          Comment

          • #6
            Shell has been around for ages with various forms of it's logo. I'm confused. Is the original designer still alive? I doubt it. Do they lease the latest version of the logo from the most recent re-designer? If they do then they are spazzes for getting into that situation. Do they lease the original logo concept from the family of the original designer. WTF?

            Comment

            • #7
              It could just be an urban myth, I got curious now and did a quick research search and came up with nada on this aspect.

              The creator is dead, however, but he did a lot of high profile branding:

              http://www.answers.com/Raymond%20Loewy

              Comment

              • #8
                Inform the client that they have to have a contract with the original designer to sign over the copyrights to the logo. They should have full rights to the logo and that includes source or at the very least a high res vector format.

                It is a graphic design industry standard that the client owns all rights to the logo inorder for that "iconic image" to be trademarked. The designer in this case is ethically wrong for holding out on the logo. However, there is no law that I know of other than it just has to be in the contract.

                Comment

                • #9
                  I wonder... If the original designer doesn't release the artwork that they were paid for, if they can be sued. Obviously, if it was in the contract, then they can be sued, but if the contract said that the copyrights to the logo would be held by the designer, I wonder if they can be sued under false pretenses? After all, a person handing over money to have a company logo design obviously assumes they will receive the copyright for it. It's part of any normal identity deal, and if anything else is to be negotiated, it needs to be brought out-front in the discussion, not hidden in fine print.

                  Grrrrr... Manipulative designers like that make me so mad...

                  Comment