Is It Unethical to Use the Company Logo Without Authorization?

Believe it or not there are many folks that will take a company logo from a company other than their own and use it to promote their website, or use it to add credibility to their endeavors. But when these folks use these logos without permission, that is actually a crime and it is very serious. You see, the logo or brand of a company is hard earned and it must be watched carefully.

Over the years I noticed websites using our logo to promote their franchise buyer services, without our permission. Then when someone decided they wanted to buy a franchise they’d sign up on the website to get information. Then the website would call our company and tell us they had a live prospect with “x-amount” of dollars in such and such area of the country that wanted to buy our franchise.

They’d sometimes try to sell us the name, but that would really make us upset, here they were selling us leads to franchise buyers when they used our company logo without permission to attract the prospect. Can you believe the gall of these people?

Worse, they were dumbfounded when we told them we did not want the lead, would not pay for it, and for them to contact the person and apologize and tell them they were not affiliated with us and that they stole the logo without permission and put it onto their website! Further, if they did not do this, we would file a lawsuit within 3-days. Luckily, we only had to do that once.

Often, we noticed vendors that did business with us, use our logo to tell their customers that they worked with great companies like ours. But you see, we didn’t want our competition knowing which vendors we worked with, needless to say, we told them to take it down. Once we decided to cut the vendor and they lost our account.

It’s always amazed me that companies will borrow logos like that, without permission, but don’t you do it, it makes companies very angry, so, ask permission first. And expect them to say no. But if they say yes, then you have done the right thing and been rewarded for it.

Today with the Internet people many people simply lift logos off and use them for their own purposes, it’s like the Wild West out there, and companies work very hard to control who uses their logos and where. Be sure to ask first. Think on this.

Lance Winslow – Lance Winslow’s Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance

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Tags: ethics, business, law, work, event