Best Buy shuts down “God Squad” on trademark violation

The altering of corporate logos to convey Christian messages has become fairly commonplace, with altered logos showing up on t-shirts, in sermons and now on cars. A Wisconsin priest recently ran afoul of Best Buy for unauthorized use of the trademarked logo for their Geek Squad service. As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal reported:

“Best Buy, the Minnesota-based electronics retailing giant, recently sent Strand a cease-and-desist letter concerning his car. The black Volkswagen Beetle has oval door stickers that read “God Squad” in a logo very similar to the black, white and orange logos on black-and-white Geek Squad Beetles driven by the computer and electronics trouble-shooters.”

Just as permission is required to use a copyrighted song, permission is also required to use a trademarked logo. The odds of getting this permission go down when you start talking about altering the logo. Owners of trademarks care very much where their trademark is displayed and they don’t want it to be altered in any way. BestBuy couched their disapproval this way:

“This was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission. But at the end of the day, it’s bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others,” she said in an e-mail.

Stay on the safe side and create your own iconography. If you want to use a trademarked logo, be certain to get permission, but keep in mind that requests to alter that logo will likely be denied.

Short URL: http://www.copyrightcommunity.com/?p=664

Posted by CopyrightSolver on Aug 16 2010. Filed under Copyright News, Using Images. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry